He Forgot, But He Didn't
by Divide19
Summary: At the end of the movie, everyone were blasted by the Amnesia-inator; thus, no one remembered. Well, perhaps someone wouldn't reckon so. Of course, if that person does exist, he'd have a grand secret to keep, right? Disclaimer: I do not own Phineas and Ferb. The characters all belong to Dan, Swampy, and Disney.
1. Chapter 1

"Ah! I give up."

As he stood right in front of the Amnesia-inator, the British boy went into a brief flashback, silently, about the day when he and his brother stumbled across Perry's underground lair. He made many attempts to tell Phineas that he didn't build the high-tech basement, but to no avail.

Originally, Ferb did it simply out of plain frustration, but now, in retrospect, he was pretty glad that he had concealed the truth from Phineas. Well, not really "concealed", it's just Ferb had been tired of being interrupted every time he tried to mention it, so he didn't bother anymore.

And thinking back, he couldn't help but blame himself. He shouldn't had even given that a single thought in the very first place; he had been caught up in the temptation without realizing what it might have been, had he succeeded.

In a few seconds, Ferb was awoken from his trance by a lovely voice, which he recognized instantly as Isabella's. Head up, he smirked at the hesitant intonation of the girl; obviously, she had wanted to kiss her crush without him having any knowledge about it for far too long, so what better time than this?

Just as Ferb was about to burst into chuckles at his brother's amusing reaction towards the kiss- the speechless boy looked completely stupefied, he was blinded by an intense white light.

* * *

The next day, Phineas woke up to the chatter of the platypus. He stretched a little as he said, "Good morning, buddy!" Having already woken up, Ferb tacitly greeted his stepbrother; yet when he moved his sight to their beloved pet, he was extremely shocked to find himself picturing Perry in a fedora. Something must have triggered it, he thought, but what can it be?

"Hey Ferb, do you remember what we did yesterday? 'Cause I have no idea."

Ferb closed his eyes, searching through his memory. Much to his surprise, he was able to recall the entire inter-dimensional adventure vividly, along with the epic fight against Second Dimension Dr. Doofenshmirtz, a tough and relentless battle which they won eventually. _His_ knowledge of Perry being a _secret_ agent must have somehow managed to allow his brain to preserve the previous day, the effects of the Amnesia-inator notwithstanding.

Ferb opened his eyes and gave Phineas a negative response, even though it was the opposite extreme of the truth. This piece of information was supposed to be hidden in the back of his mind, at least for now; should he let the cat out of the bag, it could bring major problem, not only to himself, his family, and his friends, but also, possibly, to the entire universe. The _consequences_ could be destructive, perhaps even irreparable.

Hence it was decided. All of these ought to remain confidential; not even Perry or Phineas can know about it.

Before heading downstairs with Phineas, the British quickly wrote in his diary, careful not to allow anyone else to see the words, the platypus included:

 _Mystique and cuteness,secretive and glorious_

 _He's never ever out of style_

 _If you're in a trouble then shout out his name_

 _And he shall be there in a while_

 _Ain't gon' be prominent_

 _But you're the dominant_

 _Make me see clearly in the mist_

 _Not obligatory_

 _Never compulsory_

 _But when I hear you growl,can't resist_

He closed the diary and placed it in a rectangular box. He then locked up the box; since he was only one who knew the code, he was certain that nobody else would see the contents.

* * *

Phineas was sitting beside his stepbrother, who was trying to keep his nervousness under control. Staring into somewhere faraway, the British appears to be contemplating on what they should do, whereas unbeknownst to the other, he was avoiding eye contact partly because he was scared to give out a recent secret of his own; indubitably, that puts a significant amount of stress over the youngster.

Phineas started to speak,"It's really bizarre we can't remember what we'd done yesterday. Nevertheless, whatever had happened, whatever we'd experienced, strengthened our bond with Perry somehow, I suppose."

Ferb couldn't agree more, except that he actually knew exactly why since he remembered the event. Knowing he shouldn't give out any clue, Ferb faked a thoughtful expression, which fooled Phineas successfully.

A chatter was heard. Phineas was patting their platypus when inspiration struck.

"Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!", shouted the boy excitedly, jumping to his feet. Perry anticipated, fearing that Phineas would propose any big idea that could possibly lead to his owners learning(or rather, remembering) his confidential double life. Perry was rarely this nervous around the boys, but there was no second chance should his cover be blown again.

Isabella walked right through the fence."Hey Phineas. Whatcha' doing?", she asked, with a sweet and innocent intonation. This usual act of the girl got Perry on his nerves; under the mindless facade was a platypus heart beating a hundred times faster than normal. And then, much to the platypus's relief, the young inventor replied," Hi Isabella. Ferb and I are just about to start building the largest water slide ever. Ferb?"

Said boy showed Phineas the blueprint.

"I'm pretty sure Perry would love this one, although he's likely to be unable to join us in the fun, just like he always does," Phineas said. For a brief moment, there was slight sentiment in his smile, but the only one who had noticed was Isabella, since she was practically gazing at the boy for all time."Well, he might get a chance to have one ride if he's back early," Phineas concluded optimistically, before Isabella could say anything.

Hiding behind the tree was the platypus, fedora on, ready to hop into his lair. He felt content for having such  
caring owners, and he is never going to allow anyone to take them away. Phineas and Ferb will always be there for Perry the pet platypus; likewise, Perry the secret agent shall keep protecting them from any malice. He knew he'd have a vexatious time trying to maintain the cover for several days, yet with their love, he was pretty sure that everything's gonna turn out fine.

Perry swept his eyes around on his boys and Isabella for one last time, before stealthily slipping into the tube which leads underneath. _Looks like the Amnesia-inator served its purpose perfectly_ , he thought, _no sign of anyone remembering the inter-dimensional adventure and all the craziness yesterday. Great._

"Hey Ferb, did we order the parts earlier this morning?" The green-haired kid shook his head no. Phineas said," I'll do it right now then." And with that, he walked into the house, leaving his brother(actually it's stepbro) and Isabella in the backyard, both of which as jittery as possible, albeit Ferb didn't show it.

* * *

Candace walked into the living room to see her little brother on the phone. Within a second, she instinctively shouted,"Phineas! I don't know what you and Ferb are doing, but you two are gonna be so busted!"

Phineas winced at the clamorous and piercing scream."Pardon me." He turned to his sister and said calmly,"Hey Candace. Just ordering the parts for our project today."

"Who was that girl? Her voice made my eardrums hurt"asked the man on the other side.

"Oh, sorry about that, it's just our sister Candace trying to bust us again",  
Phineas replied.

"Is she always like that?"

"Yeah. Literally every day whenever it's summertime. She's constantly trying to do that; her attempts are still futile by now, though."

"How could you handle it?"The man inquired, to which the boy answered,"Yes, it was a bit irritating at first, but we got used to it soon."

* * *

When Phineas walked out, he saw his friend Isabella only. He was about to speak when Baljeet and Buford got in. Strangely enough, the nerd did not come in dangling onto or enclosed in anything or anyone; instead, they both simply walked in."Hi Phineas and Isabella." Baljeet greeted.

Isabella gave them a curious look."What? Buford don't feel like bullying this morning, 'kay?"

Phineas said," Hi Baljeet and Buford. I just placed the order, so it should take seventeen minutes or so before we  
get those stuff. In the meantime, how about we all think about this question: what did we do yesterday?"

Isabella was in a trance once again until she heard Buford's typical raspy voice,"Why are we doing this? Buford see absolutely no fun in this."

"Oh, you'll be surprised. Ferb and I woke up to find that we can't remember anything from the previous day. So you really gotta give it a try, you probably won't remember just like us, but maybe any of you will. Who knows?"

"You could just check out your diary, Phineas."suggested Baljeet.

"We were too tired to keep a diary."

"Yeah, I know. I mean, I know _why_. I'm exhausted to death when I was finally home last evening. However, come to think about it, I can remember nothing; furthermore, when I try to think about yesterday, my memory became completely blank."Isabella said.

Phineas said,"Me too. Exactly the same as you. Hey, where's Perry?"

Isabella thought, _oh Phineas, you're so gorgeous. Yet, will you ever realize how deep my love toward you is?_

Baljeet asked,"And where is Ferb?"

Phineas looked around, but didn't spot his stepbrother. Weird, he thought, usually he's around me. "Did you see him l-" He was interrupted by the rustle of the leaves, and then Ferb fell from the tree, landing on his feet."There you are,Ferb. It feels a little funny saying that to you, because usually I say that to Perry- in the end of the day, also."

Ferb blinked, but it's an unusually extraordinary blink even for his stepbro and friends; in fact, the motion was so mysterious that even Phineas failed to decipher it.

Deep within his mind, the British murmured somberly, _I'm sorry._


	2. Chapter 2

Perry had just received his mission briefing and was on his way to Dr. Doofenshmirtz's apartment. He's not distressed at all, for he knew for certain the evil scientist didn't remember visiting his horrifying doppelganger. _I guess this_

 _is nothing more than a regular scheme-foiling_ , Perry said to himself as he drove his hover car across the azure sky.

A quarter of his journey down, the platypus spotted a record with a photo of him and his owners beneath the seats. He took it out and inserted it into the music player in his hover car, wondering why he didn't notice that earlier at the same time.

As soon as the music started to play, Perry recognized that as the song they've written for him last Tuesday. He began tapping to the beat happily, listening to Phineas unique voice. _That's Phineas, I'm only listening to him sing, but I'm immersed in the optimism which he never tries holding back_ , thought Perry.

As the song moves on to the chorus, Perry heard a high-pitched voice harmonizing in the background. He was amazed and startled. _Is that Ferb? I never knew he could sing so high, and yet sounding so angelic. Absolutely awesome._ _Maybe I don't know everything about this man of action, right?_

 _Every day is such a dream_

 _When you start it with a monotreme_

 _He's duckbilled and he's beaver tailed and hairy (You know that he's hairy)_

 _Everything's better with Perry_

In the soundtrack, Ferb was singing the next verse in chest voice. The voice is easily distinguishable by the British accent. _Man, this is the best song ever._

 _You're a shining light you're kryptonite_

 _You're a firework shot through the sky_

 _With the best pet in the nation_

 _Catching everyone's attention_

 _Now I'm staring right between your eyes_

 _And there's one thing I can't deny_

 _You're the source of my elation_

 _And that all of our inventions_

Phineas picked up the pre-chorus while Ferb sang the secondary part. The chorus was sung by both boys:

 _Look so fine your fur is teal_

 _It might seem strange but that's what I feel_

 _You're the one and only miracle, oh Perry_

 _When you chatter all broken hearts heal_

 _You slap your tail and I'm appealed_

 _There to cheer me up if things get hard to take in_

 _Everything's better with Perry_

The very last sustained Bb6 was sung by Ferb powerfully as Perry parked his hover car on the evil scientist's balcony. He didn't even hear the evil jingle; but after all, it's not like the secret agent needed that to help him recognize the place or something, right? Perry asked himself: _how serendipitous is that, arriving at your destination the exact moment the song ends?_

Perry walked inside, putting on a serious expression, and saw his nemesis holding a ray gun. "Hey, Perry the platypus, "said Dr. Doofenshmirtz, "there's something I think you should be 'fretting' about." That being said, he pressed a remote control and tied Perry to an oversized guitar, specifically π times the normal size, without room to wiggle about his body but his fingers and a sixteenth of his tail. Irritated, the secret agent glared at Doofenshmirtz before starting to figure out a method to escape.

"Okay, so it started six weeks ago," Doofenshmirtz began his backstory, "I came across a website which stated that, according to an ancient myth of a civilization whose name had been long forgotten, there is a song that, if I sang it in reverse while playing the guitar, every single person who heard it will be mesmerized after I've done my singing; as long as I do the required things, this applies no matter how awful my singing voice is, they're going to be completely hypnotized whatsoever. Therefore I thought I'd simple use this method to make the people obey me. That way, I could finally take over the entire Tri-state area!"

To that point, Perry has played a few chords and notes on the guitar trap, but the doctor was too caught up in his own reminiscence to notice, and just continued."And it's relatively simple, I'd say; all I have to do is sing a song in reverse, and I'll be the leader. I found the song after doing a bunch of research, and spent countless laborious hours learning the reversed song. However, it turned out there is yet another problem: the vocal part of the song is in 4/4 time, whereas the guitar is in 9/8 time! This is absolutely ridiculous, Perry the platypus; how the heck am I supposed to do that?" Doofenshmirtz walked around the space exasperatedly, and then went on, "hence I designed an unprecedented contraption, and then I built it, for sure. Now, I'm gonna show you this tremendous boy. Behold! The polyrhythm-inator!" He pointed at the invention in an excessively pretentious manner. "As long as I shoot myself with this, I shall have the ultimate ability to play any two distinct rhythms simultaneously, which would fix my issue; and it will be exactly as I said, I sing that song, making everyone mindlessly ob-ouch!" Doofenshmirtz was brutally interrupted with a tail slap across his face, indicating a battle of good vs evil was just getting started. The villain also noticed that the trap wasn't in any way damaged. "How in the world did you find out the one chord progression that deactivates my trap, Perry the platypus?" He asked in their fight, but Perry simply answered with a kick in the scientist's stomach. "Oww!"

* * *

Back in the Flynn-Fletcher's backyard, the gang and a lot of children from around were gathering in the renowned place, what is possibly the coolest and craziest water slide ever clearly in sight. Built in honor of the two young inventors' beloved pet, it is, if one's being honest, nearly a water coaster of some sort, since the dropping point, which was the tip of the platypus's tail, were so high that the kids had to take an elevator there; otherwise it'll take forever to get up there.

"May I present you: The Ultimate Water Slide of Perry!" Phineas announced with pride and confidence as the people, mostly kids, looked upward at the magnificent construction in awe. Candace shouted from the stairs," Phineas! What are you guys doing this time? You're gonna be SO BUSTED!" "Hey sis. It's the Ultimate Water Slide of Perry." Candace wasn't listening, but taking pictures of the water slide.

As he was in the elevator with his brother, Phineas said," You know, Ferb, it seems like I just couldn't get over the fact that Perry always miss out on our fun. Not that I would be bugged by that, just the thought pops into my head from time to time, for instance, right now." Although he knew that their pet actually did not miss out on anything, the British only gave a reassuring thumb-up to his brother, with utterly delicate skills so as to hide his knowledge of the animal's secret status. The red-headed boy, in return, smiled not only out of gratitude toward Ferb, but also out of genuine pleasure and relief. "Thanks so much, Ferb." Ferb examined his brother's expression rather carefully before diving into the fun with others.

Picking up their speed, the two boys and their friends slid down a steep orange slope from up above which led to multiple other features of the ride, coming up one after another. They dropped seven miles before reaching a wild triple loop which was cut off mid-air, thereby launching the people across a distance to a mattress that then bounced them to the tip of the platypus's bill. Here a hairpin turn was executed, making them feel as if they were about to be swept off; nevertheless, this wasn't the case, since the precise and accurate constructing allowed the unfathomable.

Logarithmically spiraling into the right eye, the kids found out that the center in reality leads to a tunnel illuminated by alternating capri and teal lights, both of which being uncommon but fascinating colors. "Ferb is indeed the master of space maximization. He always know how to exploit a limited space to its absolute extreme- and beyond," said Phineas to Baljeet and Isabella, who happened to be nearby. "By the way, the colors of the lights we used are Perry's two favorite colors. Somehow he has curiously specific preference toward colors, but I gotta admit these are really nice choices."

In the tunnel are clothoid and elliptical loops, sharp turns, and rapid zigzags. At some points the slide would vibrate vertically, which made the trip down much more bumpy, earning cheers, screams, and shouts from the excited children. They also went down a straight incline, which may seem lame in comparison to the previous parts of the ride; however, the passengers felt that the path was curved, as the space around them was, as a matter of fact, rotating and oscillating, creating the illusion of the slide being curved.

As they spiraled out of the tunnel, Ferb was seen playing a ukulele. "Phineas, I thought that water is going to ruin the instrument?"Baljeet asked, confused. Phineas said, "That ukulele is specially designed to be waterproof, so it's okay." That was about when the slide split into two separate routes: the boys went down the platypus's face, while the girls slid down the back of the head.

By the time the people had gone through several more drops, loops, and turns, the ukulele Ferb had been holding was replaced by a small remote control, with which the boy activated the wave projectors. Everyone felt a turbulence coming from underneath, starting mild, nearly unperceivable. But the waves got stronger and stronger, larger and larger, until eventually it became the biggest wave one has ever encountered in any water park. They couldn't help but shout with exuberance, some with a little fear mixed in. Moreover, the riders were lifted off of the slide by three and a half foot at the corkscrews, then fell down along with the descending waves, making the water slide seem even more hazardous.

The routes met and combined into one again at the chest. Isabella was now right behind Phineas."This is perfect," she thought, "I've never been on a water slide like this before." Then Phineas noticed her. He turned back and said, "Hi Isabella, when did you get here?" "Um, I ended up here when the slides came back together." Isabella said to her crush, trying her very best to keep herself in the right mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Doofenshmirtz had been knocked to his knees by his opponent's swift and powerful strikes. "Ow! That hurts, Perry the platypus!" He yelled, wincing in pain. However, he got back up very soon, and was now charging toward his nemesis. Perry, on the other hand, also ran toward Doofenshmirtz for a short distance before leaping up to deliver a punch. Yet he missed, and thus crashed into Doofenshmirtz's chest. The evil scientist grabbed the platypus with both hands. Then he tossed him across the room, causing Perry to hit the wall. Despite the great impact, the secret agent landed suavely on his feet. He looked hardly affected by it.

As the fight went on, they exchanged some more blows. Perry gave his nemesis another tail-slap right on the face, and then kicked Doofenshmirtz several times mid-air. Unable to block the raged attacks, the doctor fell onto his back, temporarily lying on the floor. Perry took this as an advantage and dashed forward, trying to destroy the inator. But his adversary stopped him halfway. He was compelled to continue the fight.

"Has anybody seen Baljeet?" a girl asked. The people nearby looked around, but no one could find the Indian boy. "Isabella, did you see him?" Isabella looked around, but Baljeet was nowhere in sight. "No. Phineas, did you? Did you see Baljeet?" Phineas looked around and replied,"I don't think so. Has anyone else seen him?" "I'm afraid not." "Well that's odd. I could recall getting into the elevator with him. Also, I think he was behind me when we were in the tunnel. He couldn't have just vanished."

Gretchen scanned the surroundings once again. When her eyes fell on Buford, his position seemed to be abnormally high, and there seem to be a figure squirming underneath. She knew something must be off, so she took another look at the boy. As it turned out, it was yet another trick of the bully." Buford!" She yelled at the boy in distress while helping the poor nerd out from under the bully's weight. Baljeet, having been pulled out of the water, was gasping for air for at least a couple of minutes. As soon as he had caught his breath, the Indian boy expressed his gratitude to the girl.

"Um, Phineas, we are on an infinite loop." "Yes, Baljeet?" "So how are we supposed to get off?" "Don't you worry. Just wait for it." Merely seconds after the conversation, the loop magically extended outwards in two directions. As a matter of fact, the routes were inverses. In other words, one always goes in the opposite direction as the other.

"Mom, Phineas and Ferb built an enormous water slide that resembles Perry a lot!" "Candace, I'm heading for the parking lot right now. I'll be home in twenty minutes." said Linda. Candace said, "That's great, Mom. But hurry up as much as possible. The boys' project could disappear any time!" "All right, I know." Linda hung up the phone.

"They can't get away with this again this time. Oh, I can smell it, they're gonna be so busted when Mom come home and see all of these!"

It didn't take long before they ended up on the same track again. But the slide was not only tilted by an ostensibly dangerous angle, but it was also swinging randomly, albeit not very fast.

Buford shouted in his raspy voice, "This is so cool, man!" "Oh yeah, sure! This part is entirely Ferb's design! Rather awesome, isn't it? And it's also my favorite part of the whole water slide!"Phineas responded from a distance. "Oh my! It is so exciting" said Isabella," my heart's never beaten so rapidly before!"

In the middle of their battle, Perry tripped his nemesis by sticking out his left leg. Unfortunately for the agent, though, Doofenshmirtz's arm was intertwined with Perry's as he fell over, causing the two to collapse onto the floor together, with the evil scientist on top of the platypus. Perry let out an annoyed chatter before lifting Doofenshmirtz off his body and starting a brief wrestle with him.

Eventually Agent P was able to slip across Dr. Doofenshmirtz's feet. The evil scientist noticed that and shouted, as he rushed to the platypus," No, Perry the platypus don't-" But it was too late. The self-destruct button had already been pressed, and the platypus had left with his jetpack, leaving only Doofenshmirtz to cry on top of his lungs as he fell onto his knees. "Curse you Perry the platypus!" Yet it was, for all certainty, all in vain, which was of the man's knowledge. Once again, the inevitable had happened.

They went through a lot more unimaginable features in high speed before coming to an abrupt stop at a height of 1.33 mile above the water tank, which was where they were supposed to fell into in the end. "Everybody, let's count down from twelve, and then we'll start the final drop!" Phineas shouted as loud as he could. "Twelve, eleven, ten ..." All the children shouted.

When Perry arrived home, he was deeply impressed and satisfied by the boy's work. To the platypus, it also played a role in reassuring him that they've already forgot the adventure yesterday. _My boys,_ thought Perry _, how sweet they are._ Perry landed on the treetop and used one of his multiple grappling guns to send himself to the boys. "Seven, six," The children kept counting, but Perry kicked a specific rod by accident. Consequently, he as well as the kids started to slide down.

"Three, t-ahhh!" The unexpectedly early drop surprised all of them. Having switched to pet mode, Perry sat mindlessly in front of Ferb. The Brit proceeded to pat the platypus, but was distracted by a curious beam that hit the slide behind the kids. The slide vanished in a split second. "What was that?" Ferb asked himself as he placed his hands on the animal's body.

"What?" Candace yelled in disbelief," how'd the slide disappear? Must be Phineas and Ferb again. Well, at least I still have the water tank."

Finally, the Flynn-Fletcher duo and their friends fell into the water down below with a huge splash, along with their pet platypus. Water splattered all around the backyard.

A familiar car horn was heard. Candace ran out and dragged her mother into the backyard. "C'mon, Mom. You've missed the water slide already, if you don't hurry up you'll miss everything." The teenage girl urged.

"A-ha!" Phineas had just surfaced when he saw Mom and Candace. As he was going to swim to the edge, in order to say "hello", he felt something furry swept past his legs. Phineas soon saw it clearly, as the object showed itself from the water.

"Oh, there you are, Perry." Phineas said between his breaths. Due to his duckbill being underwater, Perry couldn't chatter a response at the moment. The boy and the platypus swam to the edge with Ferb. "Hi Mom. Hey Candace." said Phineas while he leaned against the water tank, the platypus in his arms. "Hi boys." She turned to her daughter and told her,"Candace, I don't see anything I can blame Phineas and Ferb for. They're simply playing in the water. With their pet." "No, Mom. Just you wait, these boys have an unbelievable number of tricks up their sleeves. Soon they'll reveal another one," insisted Candace."Candace honey, you sure have a rich imagination. But I'm too tired for your fantasy now." Linda said as she walked into the house. She even yawned when she opened the door. "Mom saw it with her own eyes, but she didn't bother to bust them! Argh!" The girl complained to herself in frustration.

"Candace." Phineas said, which earned a disgruntled glare from his sister,"you do remember that I told you Ferb's been working out, right?""You mean that time when you became superheroes last summer? Of course, Phineas. It was on the news, and Mom didn't even notice it!" Having been reminded of her failed attempt to bust her brothers to their mother, Candace said out of irritation. "Oh, like you're gonna show me his results." She went on and said to Phineas sarcastically, not caring a bit, since that's definitely not something she can bust the boys for. "You bet. Just take a look." Phineas told her. Apparently, he didn't pick up Candace's attitude. She only took a glimpse before making a brief, dry statement,"oh that's pretty good." After that, Candace walked into the house and went upstairs into her own room.

"I wonder where the slide went, though." Perry chattered, _I have no idea, honestly. Usually it's Doofenshmirtz's inator, which emits one last beam as I destroy it. But his inator today wasn't a Vanish-inator or something similar, so nah. It can't be him. Must be some other villain, I guess. Oh well, perhaps l can ask Major Monogram about it._ Phineas turned, but Ferb wasn't there. He turned around and spotted the Brit a few feet away. The figure was clearly distinguishable because of the green hair floating above the surface."Hey Ferb!" Ferb waved at them two."C'mon Perry!" The young inventor told his pet platypus, and they started to head in his direction.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Special thanks to author Galaxina-the-Seedrian for complimenting me from the first chapter of this story and following it. You think so highly of my fanfic, so I hope Chapter 2 and 3 didn't let you down. Thanks a lot! By the way, I tried to sensitize that scene in the episode "Swiss Family Phineas", where Ferb is seen swimming with dolphins.

* * *

Ferb was lying on a inner tube when all of a sudden, the ring flipped over. Surprised as he was, the Brit emerged astonishingly fast to see his pet platypus sitting on the inner tube and the amused look on his brother's face. Ferb gave Phineas an accusing stare, to which the red-headed boy replied right away, waving both of his hands frantically,"no, it was Perry!" Perry was about to do his characteristic chatter when a mildly annoyed Ferb Fletcher flipped the ring over again, which genuinely took the platypus by surprise.

Perry swiftly jumped back into the water at the last moment, but then he noticed his British owner coming at him. The platypus started to swim around in a playful manner, sometimes diving, as Ferb chased after him. Swimming was one of Perry's favorite activities, mainly because he could pull off a lot of tricks underwater in front of anyone, and no one would suspect a thing. They'll simply suppose that's what a normal platypus do. This enables Perry to be the most of himself in the water, since whenever he's on the land, he had to be extremely careful to act mindless, otherwise there's a pretty good chance Phineas and Ferb would notice, and his cover will be blown.

Ferb had almost gotten Perry when the platypus began to slow down. The boy gladly took it as a opportunity and swam as quickly as he could towards his pet; yet the platypus did a U-turn and slipped underneath. Completely confounded, the Brit surfaced, not to take a breath, but to get a better picture of the position of his target; it wasn't until then that he saw Perry on the other side and realized what had just happened. Ferb dove into the water and continued chasing.

Phineas was immersed so deeply in watching all of this that he didn't hear Isabella saying her catchphrase, nor see her approaching; therefore when he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around a little shocked. However, Phineas quickly recovered and said,"hey Isabella. I'm watching Ferb chasing down Perry. Obviously it's because that Perry flipped his inner tube over." "But Ferb wasn't in his diving suit when he got on the slide." "He wasn't now, either. Ferb could stay underwater for a maximum time of about eight minutes without the need to breathe." "Wow. That was astounding." Isabella remarked, then asked,"how'd he do that?"

"Well, four years ago, before we started inventing stuff, Ferb spent an entire summer with dolphins. I don't know exactly what occurred when he was with those dolphins, but when he came home he could speak dolphin. However, only two years later, which was when our family went whalewatching, he was in a school of dolphins, following aside our ship."" It was pretty crazy," said Isabella. Then she asked, "Phineas, but how come we have never seen him stay underwater for a long time? When we go diving, he does use oxygen supply."

"Well, for one, eight minutes may sound like long, but it's still too short for our activities; underwater construction, which typically takes around fifteen minutes, thus requires Ferb to carry an oxygen supply, not to mention that it's rather easy to swallow water from the bumpy process. Then, for another, Ferb has been asking me to go free diving with him since, um, I guess it's somewhere around two years ago, however I thought that it was too risky and thus declined his invitation every time. Until last night."

Phineas concluded, "So Ferb and I are visiting his dolphin friends next Tuesday. Do you want to come with us? Of course, you don't need to free dive if you don't want to; we have diving suits. And perhaps you can ask Baljeet and Buford if they want to come along, too." "All right, I'll be there." " Great. Meet you at Danville Harbor then. But for now, let's just enjoy the show. What do you say?" Isabella shook her head yes.

Like a graceful dancer, Perry did some cartwheels and somersaulted underwater as he swam, taunting the green-haired boy.

Irritated, Ferb picked up speed and went after the monotreme. Perry shot himself through the water with utter agility before diving down five feet deep and surfacing in a blink of an eye.

The Brit had spotted the animal on Phineas's lap, but he decided to go for a raid; thus he approached stealthily from underwater. Unfortunately for him, though, Perry was able to detect Ferb before he could reach him, so he leaped off from the other direction and escaped. Ferb dove back into the water and kept chasing down the platypus.

Soon Perry pulled off yet another stunt: he was swimming around his British owner, avoiding his grips from a fingerbreadth multiple times, and then slipped away again. The chase went on for roughly seven more minutes; Perry would suddenly freeze for a couple of seconds and allow Ferb to come close before taking off abruptly, doing several acrobatic moves underwater.

When Ferb finally emerged for air, Phineas asked him with a funny expression,"hey Ferb, how does it feel to be taunted by your pet- I mean, our pet?" Ferb didn't say a word. He looked at Isabella; she was smiling. Just as Ferb was going to set his forearms on the inner tube, something bumped into Phineas's inner tube, causing him to fell into the water. Phineas came up and spit out a stream of water-right on Perry's face.

"That was you, wasn't it?" Phineas said to his pet platypus as he held onto the inner tube. Perry was knocked off the ring unexpectedly, and Ferb poked his head out from the center. " Ferb, you- yeah, you had get back on Perry." With that said, Perry hopped back onto the ring.

"Gotcha!" Pointing at the family pet mischievously, Phineas said before he and Isabella both burst into fits of Brit was quite amused as well, although not as much as his stepbrother and his friend for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, he did not show it.

Perry chattered mindlessly.

* * *

Evil scientist was surfing the Internet at home after he got beaten up and his scheme blew up in his face. He came across a website. "Perry's blog. Only open to OWCA employees. Password: Your secret agent code." He read the title and said to himself,"hmm. I wonder if that one I got when I was an OWCA agent works." He typed in something. Soon the screen displayed,"Welcome, Agent Doofenshmirtz." The man immediately noticed a post on the blog- more specifically, a video. The cover was a picture of Perry the platypus holding an electric guitar. "Ooh, let's see." Doofenshmirtz clicked his mouse and started to watch the vid.

At the beginning of the video, the background was entirely black, and there were some bolded texts on the screen. It read,"Harder to Breathe/Originally by: Maroon 5, Phineas Flynn, Ferb Fletcher, and Isabella Garcia-Shapiro/Cover and production by: Perry the Platypus(a.k.a. Agent P)". The words were gone in seconds; however, it was still dark on the screen. Faint bass guitar notes were heard.

Doofenshmirtz saw a shadow walking. He could make out a tail dragged behind the body, and thus he was able to deduce that it was most likely Perry the Platypus. He was proved right when the video showed the figure stepping into a lit room as the sound of the bass got louder and louder, revealing the creature clearly.

As Perry's powerful yet slightly raspy voice came out in the audio, he was shown hitting a punching bag without boxing gloves; it was hung lower than usual, due to the platypus's height, but still one nonetheless. He hit the bag hard twice in a row before he stopped for a little while. Then he did it again. And again. After that Perry hit the punching bag around twenty times in a row, each punch harder than the previous one. "This is pretty good, I gotta admit. Even though he's my nemesis." Doofenshmirtz made the remark.

As the music intensified on the upcoming four lines, a figure of Perry the Platypus showed up, vaguely at first, and then quickly became clear.

Perry was singing in front of a microphone and playing the electric guitar in the Danville Mountain. It was snowing heavily, so his fur was covered with a layer of snow; there were some snowflakes on his his guitar strings, too. However, his voice got significantly louder when he was singing the last line of the chorus.

The scene switched to a small room where the platypus with a fedora was seen staring at his own reflection in a mirror angrily. He shouted at the reflection furiously while slamming both hands on the desk before storming out.

Some short clips of Perry attacking Doofenshmirtz in their previous battle was shown. They were rather short, each of which lasting for less than half a second.

Then Doofenshmirtz saw Perry skiing down a hill. The platypus did an air flip, and the video went on to show Doofenshmirtz hiding right outside his home, shaking uncontrollably from fear.

The next shot was in a darkened it's too dark, the only thing Doofenshmirtz(and any other viewer) could see is the secret agent's hazel eyes sparkling with fury.

Suddenly the room got illuminated and revealed the platypus, who was playing a solo on his guitar. "I know it's not supposed to happen, but I think I really like this part." The evil scientist said to himself as he watched the video. Perry knelt down on the grassy ground, his fingers moving agilely on the frets.

There was a pair of teal hands playing the drums. Soon it was Perry singing into a microphone while holding it with both of his hands; however, only his hands and his duckbill are seen. He dragged a red guitar through the snowy ground for merely seconds before disappearing on screen. Then the platypus was playing the bass guitar, swinging his head mildly to the rhythm as his fingers plucked the strings.

Doofenshmirtz realized he was humming along to the music when Perry the Platypus started to sing the chorus again, except this time he was shown playing the piano. When Perry hit a high note in chest voice, creating a hoarse sound, the only thing Doofenshmirtz could do was shiver, for he was at a loss for words. After that, Perry was seen sitting in a chair. As the last line was sung, the platypus was spotted in a room which was barely lit by the gleam outside, and with Perry's vocals descending from his falsetto range, the door was slammed closed, stopping the dim light from coming in. "My, my. He's definitely one heck of a platypus," said the evil scientist when the video ended in darkness.

* * *

Phineas and Ferb made a loop with their bodies, and Perry jumped through it. The platypus turned around and did that again. Holding his breath, he dived and sat on Ferb's belly for a while, before swimming to Phineas's hands, which had formerly let go of the Brit's feet. Phineas grabbed onto Perry's beaver tail gently yet firmly, so that the boys and the platypus made a chain. They swam around together as one long body chain, trying to find out everything they could do like this.

After they came apart, the three submerged themselves in the water tank and went in all directions, constantly making turns. Ferb gripped his brother's legs and turned him upside down. Perry's bill came into contact with Phineas pointy nose by accident when he swam by. In spite of knowing that fact the first day he and his stepbrother got Perry, the young inventor was still kind of fascinated with how soft his bill was.

Nevertheless, after a few sessions underwater, Ferb decided that it would be better if he stay away from his pet and leave the fun to Phineas and Perry before he got too pumped to contain himself, in which case he might accidentally spill the secret he'd been keeping for a long time. He was mostly concerned if Perry find out, and he was not going to allow that to happen.

Therefore he projected himself over to Baljeet when the platypus was above the surface mocking his stepbrother with his expertise swimming skills, effectively luring Phineas into a chasing session. They dove into the depth of the water, and Phineas started to go after Perry. However, the boy soon realized that he had somehow been tricked; instead of him going after the platypus, Perry was going after him. Phineas thought he was the predator from the beginning, and yet it turned out that he was the prey. Phineas thought as he swam as fast as he could, trying to escape from the semi-aquatic mammal, now this is really bizarre, even for a kid who builds all sorts massive, weird contraption with his brother daily. Like, how many people have gotten chased down by their pet?

Perry would go slow and high tempo on his owner. Sometimes he would slow down a little, making Phineas think that the monotreme was exhausted and therefore lose his guard, whereas sometimes he would paddle across the water really quickly, making Phineas tense up from the sensation that he was about to get caught. This fascinated the semi-aquatic mammal a lot, and he smirked at himself. Phineas didn't notice that since he was too busy escaping from the platypus, even though he was actually tricked into thinking that he was being chased down by Perry.

In the meantime, Ferb was chilling on his inner tube with Baljeet beside him. However, the peace was disturbed by Buford pulling yet another prank on the nerd. The Brit saw the notorious bully creeping close from underneath, but he had only enough time to flip Baljeet on top of himself, using the momentum to get away. This evidently annoyed Buford quite a bit, for he made a groan as he popped above the surface.

"Thank you," Baljeet said, and Ferb responded that with a blank look before pressing on the side of the inner tube, causing it to tilt. The two boys slipped into the water as a result. Baljeet swam above the surface in straight routes, while Ferb would oftentimes dive down or turn around as he pleased.

Minutes later, Baljeet swam back to the inner tube to take a rest. Ferb, on the other hand, dove to the bottom of the tank and then swam upwards at full speed, so that he practically shot himself out of the water; the Brit did a front flip and backflip in the air before falling back into the water. But he kicked Buford in the chin by accident, irritating the bully enough to challenge the Brit to an arm wrestle. Ferb recalled the time when he gave a Vulcan pinch to Buford and gladly accepted. After all, if Buford dared to challenge him, there was absolutely no reason he should decline the challenge, right?


	5. Chapter 5

Of all the people Buford hung out with, Ferb was definitely a person he holds in awe. The boy might not look fierce or tough, and he was typically a rather nice guy, but you wouldn't like it when he gets threatened and feels the need to fight back. Ferb is especially aggressive when someone attempts to hurt Phineas by any means. He learned this lesson the painful way when he got caught assaulting that red head.

That was the reason why instead of straightforwardly attacking the Brit, Buford chose to challenge him. If it were Phineas, the bully would have punched him in the face or given him a good wedgie. But it was Ferb, the one boy who could have drowned him in this place right now, had he tried to harm the Brit.

However, there was a problem. The inner tubes were too small for them to wrestle on. Instead of getting out of the water, the Brit suggested a much more creative method- doing their duel underwater. Seeing as he had fought and defeated a giant squid in the ocean before, Buford accepted Ferb's suggestion without hesitation.

At the moment, Phineas was floating on his back above the surface. Upon spotting his stepbrother waving at him, the boy flipped over and swam to Ferb. Buford said,"Dinnerbell, me and Ferb are gonna have a underwater wrestle. You be our judge, okay?" Ferb looked at Phineas, his eyes saying, "Are you fine with that, Phineas?" But Phineas had already swum off toward the switch, which he used to create a zone with red light in the water.

Both opponents glared at each other firmly, though Ferb's was less menacing than Buford's, before diving under and starting their wrestle. While Buford had enough muscles to beat up a monstrous sea animal, Ferb had incredible agility underwater, due to his experiences with the dolphins. He was more concise with his actions, too. After all, one thing he was known for is his efficiency among his friends and family.

Ferb signaled the start of their duel with hand motions. Buford may be a big bully with a lot of brawn, but the green-haired kid still managed to fight back; the two pushed and pulled until Buford began to weaken from shortage of oxygen. Ferb took it as his opportunity and flipped his adversary over his shoulder. Buford got to the surface to find that he was half a foot away from the Brit.

The bully attempted to swim back to the middle yet was blocked halfway by his opponent, who gave him a tight clinch, followed by a forceful strike, sending him even farther away from the center of the zone. Ferb swam over to Buford intentionally, which confused him for a split second. The Brit seized the other's arms- both arms; however, this time Buford was able to struggle out of his grasp and return the favor, furthermore locking his throat, compelling him to let out some air bubbles.

Ferb tried in vain to escape for seconds before he realized something. Then he clutched Buford's legs with his own and leaned back, pushing him away. The attempt turned out to be more successful than he'd expected, but one could chalk it up to Buford paying no heed to Ferb's moves, thinking it was impossible for that to affect him whatsoever. The bully was a few inches from the Brit now.

Despite that being unnecessary, Ferb decided to come out and take a breath. He soon noticed his adversary beside himself.

After they had dived back into the water, Ferb snuck behind Buford, grabbing his feet and pulling him deeper down; he also turned the bully upside down before squeezing his stomach, which caused the bully to burp, thereby letting out some air in his lungs.

Buford strived to get on the upper hand, but given that he was wrestling Ferb, it was evidently tough. Therefore they, holding their breaths, tumbled in the water, but no one could really take down one another. Well, that remained true until Ferb, who was having control over the bully, abruptly let go of him and slipped beneath Buford's legs. It wasn't until then Buford realized he'd been tricked; now he was on the verge of losing. Alarmed, he swam toward the middle of the zone as fast as he could. He popped his head out of the water, for he needed more fresh air.

Ferb collected all his strength and tossed his opponent across a distance. In addition, he swam swiftly behind the bully in order to create a current, which pushed Buford away a few more.

Meanwhile Phineas was sitting on his inner tube with his loyal pet by his side. With his usual optimistic smile on his face, he gently stroke the animal's fur, feeling the smooth touch of the platypus; in return, Perry gave a satisfied purr in relaxation. The platypus felt like he could leave all his problems and stress behind and simply enjoy this wonderful time with his family, and nothing would be able to disturb his bliss. Since they were swimming in the water just a few moments ago and Perry did not bother to dry himself off, there were a number of droplets on his fur, giving an extra texture to his body. Some of the droplets dripped down from the platypus as Phineas stroke his back, producing ripples on the water surface. Both were certain of one thing: they love each other better now.

Baljeet was sitting on an inner tube, too. But suddenly he got pulled into the water. Shocked, he found the person who had pulled him in to be none other than Isabella. After he and the girl were back to the surface, Baljeet panted for a little while before he asked her grudgingly, "why did you do that? Do Buford not stress me out enough? Why could not you do that to Phineas, I believe he would enjoy it?" Chuckling, Isabella answered, "Because I thought you'd at least splash me with water. And can't you see Phineas is having his owner-and-pet moment? I didn't wa-" Her words stopped when water got into her mouth.

It was Baljeet, who had just splashed some water in her face. "As you wish." The girl spit the water out and splashed back. Then they began to splash water on each other and laughed from their utter happiness. Yet both were too engaged in the fun to see the young red-headed inventor and his teal platypus creeping up on them from below the surface.

Phineas and Perry stayed underwater, waiting for the perfect time to execute their mischievous raid. However, Baljeet and Isabella still didn't notice when they were only several inches below them. Perry swam upward a bit more and raised his tail. Then as the semi-aquatic mammal slapped his tail rapidly onto the surface, Phineas flapped his arms wildly, splashing all on the boy and the girl and greatly taking them by surprise. Before the victims could fathom what had just happened, Phineas and his platypus had already disappeared underwater.

Phineas watched the fight-more precisely, the wrestle from just outside the zone. He held his breath and dived under to get a better view of the underwater wrestle, while Perry paddled across the water above him.

Whenever he felt out of breath, he'd get to the surface, take a deep breath, and after his lungs was filled with fresh air again, he would dive under. But he always kept an eye on the two's wrestle, not wanting to miss anything.

Buford tried to push Ferb back, and yet his uncompromising opponent would never let him. He resisted, he resisted, and he resisted. Both wasn't able to move the other by even the tiniest amount until Buford got too exhausted to go on, partly because underwater wrestling, which in turn meant he had to wrestle Ferb while holding his breath, was significantly more laborious than normal wrestling on land.

Still having adequate air left in the lungs, Ferb gave himself a smirk and proceeded to launch a few more attacks. Then he allowed Buford a while to breathe.

When Buford dove back underwater, he caught a glimpse of Ferb shooting his own body upwards; he attempted to grab the Brit's legs, but Ferb was just too agile. Ferb took only a quick breath before falling into the pool due to gravity. He dove at an amazing speed towards Buford. That startled the bully quite a lot, so the next second he was aware of, he had been pushed all the way down and pinned to the very bottom of the pool.

Buford squirmed violently, using all his power at the time. However, Ferb's pin was rather tight, and he was fixed to the floor of the tank with water all around him and his green-haired opponent atop him.

According to their rules, if he went out of breath, he would have to surrender to Ferb. Therefore, in desperate hope, Buford struggled even harder, notwithstanding the fact that he was going out of breath.

Suddenly, Ferb let go of his opponent entirely, right before the bully had to surrender to the Brit. Not only that, but he also stayed at the bottom, awaiting Buford. Buford swam to Ferb and pinned him down with total ease, and Ferb did not even try to escape. He simply looked up at the bully calmly. Buford tried to force some air out of his mouth; however, that didn't seem to be ostensibly affecting the Brit. But the bully didn't suspect anything. He was as oblivious to Ferb's shenanigans as Phineas to Isabella's crush on him.

Eventually Buford had to breathe, while Ferb was just experiencing a slight hardship holding his breath. The Brit followed the bully to the surface. Buford took a couple of deep breaths, whereas all Ferb needed to do is poke his head out of the water, allowing air to naturally flow through his mouth and his nose.

Buford was underwater again, but he couldn't find his opponent. He looked around and swam around until he felt a powerful push on his back, launching the bully a few inches away. He tried to resist the upcoming strikes, which he had expected to be a series of pushing and pulling.

Yet, as it turned out, he was completely wrong. In reality, Ferb lifted the bully by the legs and threw him even farther away. Then he swam really quickly towards Buford, using the technique he'd used before. The current pushed Buford to the verge of the area covered with red light.

Luckily, Buford was able to straighten things up and move more than half a foot toward the middle. After breathing, he confronted his opponent and went on to wrestle him.

Both boys were determined to defeat each other. However, they were stuck in the point where neither of them could take down the other, which sort of resembled the situation a couple of minutes ago.

Ferb used a bunch of sophisticated moves on the bully, hoping for the best. But of course, Buford wasn't one to comply. He fought against every attack, and he also made as many moves as possible when there was an opportunity, though a lot of them were avoided.

However, all of a sudden, the Brit sank himself to the deepest end and lay down. Delighted, the bully went to his opponent and sat on Ferb's body. Aside from letting out a little air as a result of Buford's weight, Ferb didn't move at all. The Brit's bright eyes indicated that he was still conscious; but quite oddly, he was stiller than the water that surrounded himself and the bully on top of him.

A minute passed. Then another minute was gone. Then another. And another. Ferb could sense that his opponent was going out of breath in any minute, but he waited some more before abruptly exerting a push on Buford. Buford was taken by surprise, so he had literally no time to stop or avoid the Brit's attack, and he got pinned to the floor instead. Despite his intense struggles, Ferb kept him there until he reached the point when he really had to get some fresh air, otherwise he couldn't last any longer. He felt like his muscles were out of strength, his lungs were about to explode, and every part of his body was screaming for oxygen; thus, Buford surrendered, albeit it was pretty clear that he was extremely reluctant to do so.

Perry chattered softly when Buford and his British owner broke the surface. Having stayed underwater for too long, the bully was now completely tired out. He was gasping for air, and he could barely hold onto Ferb while the British kept treading to keep him above the surface. Ferb took extra notice to make sure he never let Buford submerge into the water. Later, they reached Ferb's inner tube, and the Brit placed his friend on it, since the bully didn't have enough energy to climb onto it on his own. Buford was lying on the inner tube, kept immobile by his tiredness; yet everyone there could see his chest moving up and down really fast, and his heart is beating rapidly as well.

A few minutes passed, and the boy's gasps gradually became inhales and exhales that were slower and steadier. Both his heart rate and his breathing rate were back to normal.

Buford sat up with great difficulty while managing to utter a name, "Ferb." The Brit was behind his back, ready to catch him lest he fell backwards, and heard the airy voice of the bully. His voice was still so faint that the word he said was almost complete muffled by his rasp. Nevertheless, the green-haired boy could distinguish what he was saying, and he came to his front, looking at him.

Another inner tube floated by, carrying Perry on it. Ferb stopped its motion while the platypus slipped into the water. After the Brit got on, Perry leapt into his lap, spilling water on his shoulder.


	6. Chapter 6

"Why did you hold me underwater for that long? I know we got that rule, but I honestly thought ain't nobody's gon' use that one to his advantage."

"You were on the edge of the red zone before that." Ferb reminded him as he stroke his pet's watertight fur.

Buford said, "Yeah... you could've just pushed me out, and yet you went away instead. So what was that messing with my lungs for? You nearly drowned me!"

Ferb answered with a question, "Aren't you a bully?" Buford found his question peculiar, but still answered, "Obviously."

"What does that mean, being a bully?"

"I can beat up or give wedgies to those weak people, especially nerds, anytime I like without any cause?" Buford said, not sure if what he had said was the response Ferb wanted.

"True. But it also meant one more thing: you're the tough guy here."

Suddenly the bully was enlightened-perhaps. "So the whole underwater wrestle was just your method of testing how tough I'd be underwater? And the concluding part was you trying to know my limits in holding my own breath?"

The Brit nodded and said," Actually, you probably went beyond. I held you down for an estimated three minutes."

"Three minutes? No wonder I was so out of breath afterwards! Never felt that way before, man."

"Wait, why'd you wanna test me?"

Ferb didn't give an answer, instead, he looked at Buford silently with a smile, before turning back to stare at his stepbro, who was swimming in the pool.

Baljeet and Isabella were getting back on Phineas. They did not plan on getting back on the platypus, though; he's Phineas and Ferb's pet after all, plus he was resting in Ferb's lap right now. That boy chased Perry down for turning over his inner tube, which may be simply accidental, considering that Perry's a mindless creature. Phineas tried to stop they two, but as it turned out, he wasn't able to. Therefore, he disappeared into the water.

One moment they were just wondering about the whereabouts of the redhead; the next moment, Isabella felt wet fingers locking around his thighs and dragging her under. Baljeet was a bit amused at how things came to be, for the girl had done exactly the same to him earlier. She was distracted by surprise since she certainly didn't expect her crush to do this.

Phineas swam through the water, holding his breath, in order to get away. Having been dragged into the water abruptly, Isabella scrambled to the surface for air; hence she didn't realize that the one she was after was hiding underwater, slipping away till he couldn't take it anymore.

As soon as Phineas came up to breathe, his triangular head made him recognizable. Perhaps the shape of Phineas is too easy to recognize, as it revealed his position immediately.

Phineas swam at his top speed, attempting to flee from the Fireside Girl troop leader's pursuit, but he kept getting inevitably slowed down every time he took a breath. I'm so jealous of Ferb now, thought the boy.

As his inner tube came into sight an idea dawned on the boy. He snickered mentally as he kept going. While Isabella raised her head above water level, Phineas slipped under and made a quick U-turn; Isabella, on the other hand, was chasing after the boy.

Perry thought he'd gotten enough pat on the back from Ferb; therefore, he went off to see what was up with his other loving owner. The platypus paddled across the water, but soon he found two Phineas. At first, he was a little confused, but after examining both Phineas for a short amount of time, he chose to head for one of them. Perry unknowingly blocked Isabella's path, giving Phineas an extra amount of time to escape, which sort of irritated the girl.

Phineas was swimming in the water tank when he found his pet alongside him. He took several brief breaths as he went, and yet went unnoticed. Isabella followed the boy and made a turn, just to see from the side of her eyes that there were another Phineas. She swam faster and faster, trying to take as fewer breaths as possible, till she finally caught up with the boy.

Isabella grabbed the boy's right foot, only to realize she couldn't. The Phineas she was after for so long was, in fact, simply a hologram. It was so perfectly designed that the waves caused by Isabella, Perry and some other kids swimming nearby did not affect it at all, making it impossible to tell from the real person for the girl.

However, Perry knew which was which. This possibly has something to do with the agent training he'd received throughout the past few years to some extent, but it was also because he knew everything about his red-headed owner, has been living with him for such a long time. As his pet, the platypus knew him like the back of his hand, and that was why he was able to tell the facade from the actual boy.

It wasn't that the image had some kind of extremely delicate error; rather, it bore a nearly perfect resemblance to the real Phineas, identical to the redhead in every single detailed aspect except for one, one thing that could never be artificially recreated- the optimistic, blissful soul of Phineas.

The boy and the platypus got to the edge. Phineas shouted teasingly, "Hey Isabella. Whatcha' doing?" She reached for the boy, trying to pull him into the water; however, right before her hands could come into contact with his feet, he jumped off and landed on Isabella's back, slipping straight into the water behind her.

Phineas spotted Ferb in the water, so he decided to go towards him. He swam and swam until he was beside his stepbrother.

They began swimming around each other; occasionally Ferb would dive beneath Phineas's legs, and vice versa. The duet lasted as long as they wish; then, Ferb circled around Phineas and swam off, while Phineas followed him.

He knew Phineas was following him, hence he started off very slow- pretentiously slow by his standards actually- and then gradually increased his speed.

Phineas was happy that he didn't have to swim with all his might just to catch up with his brother; his normal swimming pace would suffice this time. However, this kind of contentment was on the decline, as Ferb kept going faster and faster. Although the Brit increased his rather gently, after a few minutes Phineas was starting to have a hard time keeping up with his stepbrother; he struggled to maintain his pace just to avoid falling behind.

At this point, Ferb had stopped cranking up the speed. Instead, he would do quick dives and rapid turns as he swam at a constant pace- his personal favourite swimming pace, albeit it's probably insanely fast for ordinary people and way too fast for extraordinary people unless their name was Ferb Fletcher.

As for Phineas, while he wasn't really swimming any faster (not that he was capable of, given the circumstances), he still used up a great amount of energy to keep up with his stepbrother's pace and all the little tricks. Therefore, by the time Ferb finally stopped, the red-headed boy was utterly exhausted.

Using what little strength he had left, Phineas got to his inner tube and sat on it for a rest. On the other hand, Ferb saw his pet somewhere near himself in the water; therefore, he swam toward the platypus. Perry headed for the boy as well.

They stopped when they met. Ferb held Perry, whose eyes were crossed, into his chest. That was when he noticed the platypus's hazel eyes. It was an unforgettable moment for the Brit, for the way Perry looked at him was indeed the same as when they first met in that animal shelter.

Ferb smiled at Perry, and at that very moment, the boy felt like the animal was smiling back at him, though it was much more likely Perry wasn't, so as to avoid blowing his cover.

After Ferb let go of the platypus, the two took a dive. Surprisingly enough, as Ferb turned over and lied down with his belly up underwater, Perry did the same but facing in the other direction simultaneously; it was as if the platypus could read the Brit's mind and thus was able to act accordingly. Ferb did some more stunts, all of which Perry either imitated or made his own move corresponding to Ferb's.

They got over to Baljeet, who was mildly amazed at the boy and the platypus's arrival. He looked at Perry before asking, "Ferb, may I hold him for a while?" Ferb uttered no word; instead, he gave a thumbs-up. Perry laid his front paws on the inner tube while Baljeet pulled him into his arms with the other boy's help. "You sure look gorgeous, boy." The Indian boy told the platypus as he petted him, while Perry was a little amused at the movement of Baljeet's hand, which was really awkward. It looks similar from the outside; however, from the perspective of whom being petted (which, in this case, would be Perry), it just feels weird, in a way that's really hard to explain unless you're a platypus yourself. The sensation Perry was experiencing couldn't be expressed through words; the only way to know is to feel it yourself. _A subtle difference on the outside could make a grand difference on the inside,_ Perry remarked mentally.

Baljeet put Perry down, but he made a mistake of setting only his hind legs on his lap. The paws were left dangling over the edge, causing the animal to instinctively shift backwards, which resulted in the entire system losing its balance."Ahh! "Baljeet couldn't help but let out a high-pitched shout as he and Perry both fell into the pool.

Baljeet wasted no time in going to the surface. Then he mentioned, "Ferb, I just noticed that Perry had muscles. Normally it wouldn't occur on platypuses, so how come is that?" To his astonishment, Ferb shook his head, indicating that he had no idea, which is never seen of from the Brit.

Perry slapped the water surface with his tail, and Ferb got inspired as soon as he saw his pet's action. He splashed Baljeet with water, nonverbally suggesting a water fight. Immediately Baljeet splashed back.

A strong splash came abruptly from behind, and Baljeet instantly knew it was Buford. He didn't even have to look. He turned around and splashed the bully multiple times in succession.

Not long afterwards, the red-headed inventor and Isabella joined in the fun. Isabella, to some extent, saw this as her opportunity to get back on Phineas. Therefore, she kept splattering water on the boy non-stop, which distracted her from noticing a certain platypus creeping in her direction.

Perry shook his entire body vigorously at the surface, making droplets fell onto Phineas and Isabella. Phineas found that quite funny, whereas the girl didn't think so.

"Does he usually do that?" Isabella stopped to ask. Fortunately, no one splattered her while she was talking, though they were having a water fight.

"Well, it generally occurs whenever we're doing activities linked to water. Perry tends to be a lot more active on the water, probably because he's semi-aquatic, and he does all that platypus things. It is pretty normal as I see it." Phineas replied to the girl's question before getting splashed by his stepbrother.

He returned the blow. Ferb thus diverted his attention from Baljeet in order to deal with the redhead. It was tough luck for Phineas though, since Buford also decided to join Ferb. Phineas had great trouble doing a water fight with Ferb or Buford separately, let alone going against both of them simultaneously. Hardly able to defend himself from the attacks, Phineas smashed his two arms on the surface in an attempt to fight back; yet, it didn't seem to be much use.

They ended up having a quite random, perhaps chaotic, water fight, where all the people splash others arbitrarily. Sometimes a kid would attack another particular one for seconds or minutes and then turn to the next target. As if to make things even crazier, the pet platypus would casually swim by from time to time, and he'd disturb the surface with body motions, consequently splashing water everywhere.

After they finished the water fight, the children gathered around Perry. When the animal dove, they followed him underwater.


	7. Chapter 7

While he paddled through the water, the platypus reminisced about the previous day, which his owner dubbed "the best day ever", yet had forgotten. But no, he wasn't thinking of the epic battle against a robot army; instead, he was thinking about the way Ferb had acted the whole time because it impressed him a great deal.

When Perry's cover was blown, Phineas raged at him, saying that he sees them as nothing but his cover (which, of course, can't be further away from the truth). On the other hand, Ferb was really calm and collected, just as always. Even when Phineas caught him sneaking out and scolded him, or when they have to face their doom, Ferb barely had any expression on his face.

The boy experienced emotions so immense, and yet he didn't show much on his face. It was a near perfect covering up of his feelings. This kind of disproportionality, as far as Perry knows, could only occur on an extremely skilled secret agent, regardless of the species, and even Perry himself could barely meet that standard. So it got the platypus wondering: _How did Ferb manage to do that?_

Perry decided that he would save the sophisticated question for later and just enjoy the thrill of the moment. He took a glance behind and saw the children behind, with Phineas and Ferb getting closer and closer to him.

Perry did several rapid turns, and Phineas found the way his pet moved underwater rather delicate. However, by then Baljeet could not hold his breath anymore, so he rose to the surface, while others kept diving deeper with the mammal.

Baljeet said to himself as he found an inner tube floating right beside him, "It is too demanding for me to dive without breathing supply. I am going to just sit here."

But it soon became clear that someone had slipped his mind. In less than half a minute, the boy got dragged into the water. Although Baljeet only had time to take a brief breath before he submerged, he was able to take in a relatively great amount of air, filling over seven-eighths of his lung capacity, due to his abundant past experiences of getting pulled into the water unexpectedly. There's a whole darn lot of them.

Once he was underwater, he saw the menacing stare from the person who pulled him under, namely Buford. The nerd and the bully swam towards Perry and the other kids.

Phineas was tickling his pet platypus in the water, causing his tail to shoot upwards, when Buford and Baljeet approached. Perry's tail happened to slap Baljeet by accident, but it didn't matter to the Indian boy.

Phineas and Isabella left because they needed to breathe, whereas the rest of the gang, along with Perry went even deeper. Ferb and Perry swam beside each other, doing tricks like somersaulting and cartwheeling from time to time, and Baljeet and Buford stayed just behind the boy and the platypus as long as they could.

When the nerd and the bully came up for air, they met Phineas and Isabella halfway. Phineas gave the two a rather cheery wave and gave his best smile underwater, which was understandably much smaller than if he had been on land. In actuality, Phineas would probably have grinned at his friends if they weren't underwater.

To Isabella's surprise, she found Perry coming for herself not long afterwards. She was shocked by the behaviour of the energetic animal since she had never seen him act this way; just like most people, the girl considered the platypus a species that doesn't do much.

Phineas accelerated and held his left hand out so that it collided with Perry's tail as it swiped up. After the intriguingly bizarre "high-five" between the boy and his pet, the platypus turned around, while Phineas and Isabella followed him down.

They found Ferb spinning gracefully. As soon as they reached the Brit, he stopped, his legs separated just far enough to allow Perry and Phineas to swim through them at the same time.

Phineas wondered where the other two boys were, though, until Ferb, Isabella, Perry, and he got to the surface and saw Buford and Baljeet swimming above the surface.

Suddenly an idea came up in the young inventor's head. He swam to the nearest inner tube and beckoned the others to come once he got on it. "Let's race Perry! It's gotta be a lot of fun!"

"That sounds stupid. Racing a platypus, really? How do you even do that?" Buford told Phineas.

Somehow Baljeet had to agree. "Phineas, he is a platypus. He would go one way this second, but then the next thing you know, he would be heading in another direction. It is pretty much unpredictable, not to mention he swims so fast that none of us could ever catch up with him. Save for Ferb, but that is only because he had lived with a school of dolphins for a whole year!"

The redhead replied,"Ferb knows a method to make Perry follow a specific route, although we are absolutely clueless about what his chatters mean all the time. Then that shouldn't be a problem. It's gonna be fun!"

The Brit climbed onto an inner tube. Lifting the monotreme to chest level, he stared into his eyes. Interestingly enough, despite the boy's lack of words, Perry seemed to understand him. He even chattered in response, while Ferb gave a thumbs-up to him.

"Ferb is showing us the track with Perry right now," announced Phineas. They watched the boy and the animal went. By the time Ferb and Perry got back to the inner tube, everybody got the drill. Baljeet's. confusion and Buford's criticism were gone, too.

Each of the kids, along with the platypus settled there by Phineas, sat on an inner tube, already gotten ready. Once Perry leapt into the water, the entire gang took the dive behind him.

Ferb pulled ahead quite soon, but he was still falling behind the platypus by a few inches. As for the rest of the gang, they couldn't even swim as fast as Ferb, let alone Perry, their efforts notwithstanding.

Phineas gave it his best, and thanks to that, he was in front of Isabella, Buford, and Baljeet after a while. However, he was still a good one and a half feet behind his stepbrother.

Baljeet propelled himself forward as fast as he could, and yet he was still significantly slower than others, mostly owing to his short breath-holding time. As he had to come out for air every once and a while, he wasted a lot of time on surfacing, plus it required energy to do so, thereby slowing the boy down even more from exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Buford was just about to get past Isabella when the girl picked up her speed. Buford kicked his legs a little faster, but Isabella swam even faster as well. She was determined not to allow the bully to get ahead of her.

Following the Brit, the redhead dove to the bottom of the tank. The two boys, as well as the platypus in front of them, swam with great speed. Phineas was just beginning to approach his stepbro, but he felt his lungs about to explode, and his body weakened, too, resulting in a decreased speed.

His mouth was ready to open, and if it hadn't been for him using all his own will to get a hold of himself, Phineas would have breathed in the water surrounding him, and the consequences would definitely have been nasty.

Because of his urgent need for oxygen, while they were surfacing, Phineas was the fastest among the three of them. The redhead pushed his torso out of the water and took in as much air as possible in a big inhale before he fell back below the surface. Phineas found himself at second place for a split second; however, that didn't last long, for the Brit got ahead in the nick of time.

Swimming as rapidly as he was ever capable of, Ferb attempted to surpass Perry. However, the platypus was yet slightly quicker no matter how hard the boy tried to advance him.

Phineas was struggling to keep up with the Brit, who was undoubtedly agile in the water, while Ferb had all his mind on getting ahead of the animal leading the race. It was tough for the redhead, and it wasn't long before he began to

To his dismay, Isabella shot out of nowhere and swam past him with relative ease. The redhead accelerated and resumed his position earlier in the race, but the girl was only a fingerbreadth behind, so oftentimes she surpassed Phineas whenever he slowed down, and the boy had to speed up to get ahead.

Ferb saw Perry's tail within reach, and he was quite delighted about it. Phineas was back on trying to approach his stepbrother, which looked like an impossible task for him.

For Phineas, breathing only when necessary would slow him down from fatigue, plus it would also mess up his breathing rate, but breathing overly often could slow him down as well. Luckily, he figured a perfect combination of both; if he took a breath every particular amount of time, he would be able to swim at his highest speed for the longest.

Phineas used this technique to regulate his breath and noticed that Isabella was falling behind soon. He was still away from the green-haired Brit for one-third of a foot, but he felt much more comfortable underwater than ever. Phineas finally knew why his stepbrother came to enjoy being in the water so much after his one-year stay in the ocean among the dolphins.

At that point, the redhead realized the biggest reason he declined Ferb's offer all these time is that he had never really appreciated the true fun of swimming, which lies in the essence of the activity itself. Yet that did not mean he hadn't liked to swim; he had been favouring it, just like his friends, especially on a sweltering summer day.

The strategy worked like magic. Phineas found himself getting closer and closer to his stepbrother. He wasn't getting tired out as easily anymore, making him feel like he was in his best condition, even if he needed to hold his breath.

Isabella was chasing after the boy of her dream but to no avail. She had almost beaten him only seconds ago, and yet now she was watching him go, with no way to reach him.

Perry could see an inner tube, which the kids put there to represent the finishing line. He zigzagged toward the tube while also doing several underwater cartwheels on his way.

Phineas and Ferb did the same right after the platypus. However, the Brit burst forward and went pass Perry, astounding his pet, Perry, and his stepbrother, Phineas, quite a lot. It was especially shocking to Perry, who was having a little problem believing Ferb could swim that quickly.

As Perry put some more effort in order to gain back the upper hand, he knew his green-haired owner is more than extraordinary. Not only is he a master of various tools and technological devices, but he is also really agile whether he's on land or underwater. He apparently also has a bold, fearless, and adventurous mind, and given that he rarely speaks, it's very likely that he would be good at keeping things to himself.

Therefore, if Ferb were a secret agent, he would be the best one ever, and any other secret agent in decades couldn't perform better than him, that Perry was certain.

 _The OWCA had lost a potential perfect agent, thanks to their stupid policy of accepting only animals as agents. But hey, they had broken that particular rule a few times, so maybe Ferb still- oh what was I thinking? Ferb is just a young boy wanting to have fun, and he probably doesn't want to be an agent! Even if I could get Major Monogram to recruit him, so what?_

Perry was drowning in his thoughts, so he was, as a matter of fact, only swimming instinctively. It wasn't until Ferb was half a foot ahead of him that he snapped out of it and started to focus on the race again in no time. Perry swam at his top speed in order to regain his leading position.

Perry and Ferb ended up arriving at the finishing line at the same time, and thus it was a tie between them. Feeling a bit tired, Ferb lay on the inner tube with his pet platypus sitting on his chest. He looked at the sky and then his pet, thinking, _yet another marvellous day with this wondrous platypus whose name is Perry._

Phineas completed the race merely five seconds later. Once he got there, he saw Ferb's face. There was a sign of amazement in his expression.

The Brit sat up and gave his stepbrother an inquiring look, to which Phineas replied, "Yes, yes I did." Ferb gave him the widest smile Phineas had ever seen from the Brit.

They shared the inner tube as the redhead held Perry in his arms.

When Isabella reached the finishing line, Baljeet and Buford started to swim as quickly as they could, trying to defeat each other in the race. Both boys feared that they would become the last.

Baljeet recalled that there was a formula for this kind of situation which he had proven a couple of years ago. He started to swim differently, and Baljeet was now swimming faster and faster. Right before Buford finished the race, Baljeet, despite being not very athletic, was able to beat the tough, brawny bully Buford by a second. Twenty seconds since Phineas had arrived at the finishing line, the bully got there as well.

"See? You can't race a platypus," said Buford.

"Actually, I can. We all can, and we just did. We just couldn't beat Perry. But hey, Ferb and Perry got there simultaneously, so I guess he stands a chance." Baljeet and Isabella smiled at Phineas.


	8. Chapter 8

Ferb Fletcher had the lyrics to a million songs engraved in mind after the epic inter-dimensional journey, but he couldn't share it with anybody else. No, not even his pet. Who can tell how the platypus would react if he finds out that Ferb still remembers the event?

As Buford and Baljeet approached, others left the inner tube so that they could rest on it. Despite being frenemies, the nerd and the bully were too tired now to care about leaning against each other.

Perry was in the water with his owners as well as Isabella. They went under and swam for a while. Phineas and Perry chased each other around, although it is obvious that the platypus could escape the boy or catch up with him with his limbs tied together.

They came up for air before continuing, and the two dove into the water together. However, Phineas adopted a different style of swimming, as he was attempting to imitate his pet's movement underwater. By Perry's standards, the boy didn't do very well, but the try still made him smile. The platypus deeply appreciated his effort.

Perry purposefully slowed down his motions for his red-headed owner to see the underlying details, which were usually either hidden or ignored in normal speed. Phineas followed the mindless mammal and reproduced his every move.

The redhead needed to resurface oftentimes, but as a platypus, Perry could tell even the subtlest change in the actions, and he was delighted to see steady improvement in the imitation.

Phineas's platypus-style swimming got better and better until eventually, it resembled Perry so much it surprised the platypus. Wow. I knew Phineas is a quick learner, but I really did not expect him to refine his imitation of me swimming that fast. It feels like he's a platypus just like now.

Perry dove in normal speed, followed by the redhead and his stepbrother. Phineas demonstrated his awesome reproduction of Perry's swimming to Ferb and earned an underwater thumbs-up.

The three swam in the water. Perry and Phineas swam in exactly opposite direction, going towards each other before parting. On the other hand, the Brit was swimming around, occasionally passing through the temporary tunnels which the redhead and the platypus made with their body.

Phineas grabbed both of Perry's paws with both hands, and with a wave of the platypus tail, they started to swim in a way nobody had ever seen. Since their fingers were intertwined, most of the motions were propelled and controlled by kicking feet and wiggling torsos.

They went up and down, and they made turns successfully after a few tries as well.

The pet slid his tail across the water around them along a curved trajectory with strength, causing them to rotate in the water.

Now underneath his pet, Phineas kicked his legs hard at just the right moment, giving another torque for them to keep rotating until they completed a full 360 degrees turn. They did that several times more, but those movements also moved them forward, thus tracing out a cycloid with their bodies.

For a moment, Perry had an overly tight grip, so Phineas thought he felt his own pet holding his hand back. Nevertheless, he dismissed that when the platypus eased his grip swiftly.

Phineas had so much fun doing this with the platypus that he actually forgot to go up for air until his lungs were begging for them. Phineas hastily broke the grip and scrambled to the surface. Once his head was above the surface, he took a quick yet deep breath. Then he dove back to his stepbrother and his pet.

Baljeet and Buford saw Phineas and Perry coming. They swam around the inner tube, and Phineas's platypus-styled swimming was easily noticeable. "Hi Phineas," said Baljeet, getting into the water one more time.

"Hey, Perry," Buford said as he dove in as well. At that moment, Phineas saw a T-shaped face right in front of him. Surprised as he was, it took him no time to realize that it was a little prank from his stepbrother Ferb.

Phineas and Ferb kept their heads above the surface by holding onto an inner tube, while the former told the latter, "Ferb, you're such a prankster!" They swam to the two other boys underwater, who was swimming with Perry and joined in the fun with Isabella. All of them were happily swimming around and chasing after one another, and Perry was having what he considered one of the most blissful moments in his life.

Isabella turned around to see Phineas coming at her. She kicked her legs, going towards the boy, and then they swam in circles around each other.

Phineas took a dip and went away, which was not expected by the girl. She saw him swimming with his pet platypus, synchronizing their movements. In reality, even if the redhead is swimming at full speed, it is still difficult for him to keep up with Perry swimming moderately. Perry was literally a natural, and he slowed himself down on purpose, allowing his owner to go along with him. However, to an outsider watching, it was a fairly brilliant sight, a boy and a platypus in the water doing their duet.

Baljeet encountered the Brit while swimming at the surface, who invited him to come along. Having in mind that Ferb probably was suggesting a dive, which he didn't particularly favour, the Indian hesitated, considering if he should refuse; nevertheless, Ferb gave a pleading yet insistent expression and finally convinced Baljeet to go on a dive with him.

Upon submerging beneath the surface, Baljeet was astonished by Phineas swimming like his platypus. Underwater, the redhead did a flip and flung his arms rather cheerfully at them, while Perry came out from between his owner's legs. Perry did a U-turn and went through Baljeet's legs, rubbing against his thighs. Baljeet found the sensation oddly relaxing and comforting as the soft, delicate fur brushed his skin.

When Baljeet was taking a breath, he spotted the redhead doing the same. Both boys sank themselves back underwater and saw Ferb and Isabella, though the latter was just about to surface. The Brit stopped awhile, awaiting them to come close; then the Indian and the redhead, following Ferb's lead, headed towards the teal mammal.

Perry showed off some tricks, which were very basic for a platypus, like him, notwithstanding the apparent complexity and brilliance. Soon, a certain green-haired boy joined him. Ferb wrapped his arms around his knees and rolled at Perry, who raised his tail and rotated his body forty-five degrees such that he was facing down. As soon as the Brit's feet came into contact with his tail, the platypus paddled gently, diving a little deeper. Then he used his beaver tail to propel himself vertically upwards.

Having filled his lungs with fresh air roughly a minute ago, Baljeet was capable of staying underwater long enough to witness the whole thing before he had to resurface. He was going to take his time so he could breathe in more air, but the sight of the bully made him dove back into the water immediately. He would definitely seek shelter on Ferb's side.

The redhead was swimming beside his pet. Holding his arms behind, he moved through the water mostly by kicking both legs at the same time, which resembled the movements of Perry's tail. Perry started to go around Phineas; however, they were also moving forward, and as a consequence, the platypus was, in fact, swimming along a helix.

Shortly after, the Flynn-Fletcher duo and the platypus spiralled to the bottom. Once they were there, the boys wrapped themselves around their beloved pet, feeling the exquisite texture of the fur upon their chests, before the three swam all the way to the surface in order to breathe.

They swam at the surface and was at the edge of the tank in no time. Phineas put his pet on his right shoulder while holding onto a bar so as to keep his head above water level for an unrestricted amount of time. Ferb, on the other hand, swam to and fro in front of his stepbrother.

They went underwater, did a U-turn, and followed Perry. Even Phineas didn't resurface until they saw Baljeet sitting on an inner tube.

"Baljeet," said the redhead as he held onto his friend's hands so that he could keep his head above the surface. Nevertheless, Perry hopped onto the unoccupied portions of the inner tube, causing it to tilt over.

Taken by great surprise, Phineas tightened his grip and pulled backwards, attempting to right the tube. However, his pull was perhaps too strong, and therefore he ended up pulling Baljeet onto himself. Both sank under the surface, and yet Phineas did not let go until he finally noticed Baljeet staring at their hands.

The redhead smiled apologetically at Baljeet, and they headed for the surface right Perry taking the lead, Phineas and Baljeet dove again.

Baljeet was caught off guard by two strong arms that wrapped around his waistline, pulling him deeper and deeper. Surfacing wasn't possible, for Buford's grip was too tight to escape.

The nerd struggled futilely, but soon he felt like he was about to drown. He couldn't hold his breath much longer; even worse, he began to hyperventilate. Right now every passing second was incredibly tough for him.

 _Oh no, I am hyperventilating! Normally it would not be a serious issue, as my body regulates the breathing as the situation relieves, but I am underwater right now! Somebody, please help me before I die!_

Fortunately, Perry came to his rescue at full speed. Swimming as fast as possible, the platypus startled the bully, who released Baljeet to dodge getting hit by the animal.

Perry slowed down a great deal at that point. However, the boy was already too weak to swim to the surface on his own. In fact, he had almost no energy to move, and his muscles were all tensed up, causing him to sink.

He tried to grab Perry's tail with the only strength he had, but the platypus lifted his tail, and Baljeet ended up holding onto his right hind leg. Perry swam as fast as he could, and within seven seconds, Baljeet was at the surface again, just before the disastrous fate could fall on him.

He collapsed onto the platypus, who paddled to keep him above water level so that he could breathe. Perry carried Baljeet and helped the weak boy onto an inner tube; in spite of that, he swam around the inner tube, always keeping an eye on him.

Phineas came over. Baljeet looked breathless, while the platypus was swimming around him, which was really strange. It got Phineas utterly confused.

The redhead decided to wander nearby until his friend caught his breath. Phineas swam to the inner tube and held onto it, "You looked quite out of breath, Baljeet," words came out of his mouth.

"Oh yes, yes I was. Buford was trying to drown me earlier, but thanks to your amazing platypus I was saved. He is surely a great companion, and you and Ferb are blessed to have him as your pet."

Phineas nodded and scooped his pet from the water. He stroke his fur, saying,"Great job, pal. Honestly, I didn't know you'd be able to save a life. You're the best."


	9. Chapter 9

The redhead and the platypus stayed by their friend's side until he felt well enough to get in the water again. Perry chattered in relief and then turned around. "Hey Baljeet, you want to come along? " The redhead asked before he and his friend dove head first in, following the platypus.

The semi-aquatic mammal swam sideways, while his owner imitated him. Even though he hadn't seen his pet done this before, the redhead perfectly replicated his pet's movements in just one did not go very fast, a bit too slow by Perry's standards, which is why Baljeet was able to catch up without being a fast swimmer. Additionally, this allowed Perry to perform a bunch of highly virtuosic tricks in the water, some of which he had invented himself.

When Baljeet caught sight of Buford swimming by, he froze although the bully didn't show any interest in mistreating the nerd this time. Perry nudged his bill against his back, waking him up, and he resurfaced again.

"Baljeet, you were acting strangely then. Did you see something while we were underwater?"Phineas asked, concerned.

"Oh no, it was not. I was just afraid that Buford might suffocate me in the water again." As he was talking, Perry climbed onto Baljeet's legs.

"Oh yeah, I think I saw him swimming by. I do think Buford went too far, though. I think I'll leave Perry with you since he seems to make you feel secure. Or do you want to have ano-" Before Phineas could finish his sentence, someone grabbed him by the ankles and dragged him down. _Ferb!_ The redhead thought, both amused and annoyed.

Despite having gotten dragged underwater without notice, Phineas was actually a lot more surprised when he turned around. It wasn't his stepbrother, but Buford. _Wow. How unexpected. I didn't know it was Buford._

Right when the young inventor was about to go away, Buford grabbed him by his left arm. He squiggled a bit; however, Buford also tightened his grip, preventing Phineas from escaping.

Still holding his breath, Phineas did the opposite of what was to be expected. Instead of making further attempts to get away, he willfully got underneath the bully, who was obviously bigger in size.

Buford, not knowing what that was about, gladly sat on the young inventor's back, leaning forward and wrapping his arms around Phineas's back. Phineas held his arms out straight in front and started to swim like a platypus. It was slower than normal with the weight of the bully.

Whenever Phineas humped his back, it would bump into the bully's stomach, causing Buford to release air in the form of bubbles.

Ferb watched his stepbro voluntarily carrying Buford. He simply swam off, knowing where this is going. He was going to let them be.

After a while, Phineas began to dive deeper, and Buford kept burping out more and more air. In less than a minute, they both started to feel the need to breathe; nevertheless, they stayed underwater, since Buford wasn't intending to let go yet, even though he was running out of air too.

The redhead had switched to kicking legs alternatively now. With only this much oxygen left, platypus-style swimming would be too demanding.

However, Buford noticed something weird. Phineas was bringing him towards the deepest end of the pool, instead of trying to get to the surface. The redhead carried the bully near the bottom until the grab around his body finally weakened, indicating that Buford had to breathe as soon as possible.

They emerged from the water, inhaling air into their lungs. In fact, the bully had only been able to go halfway to the surface, and the redhead had to push him onto an inner tube, no matter how breathless he himself was. Phineas lay upon the surface, his head facing the sky and his breathing under control, whereas Buford was on the inner tube, having just managed to catch his breath.

"Come on Perry!" Phineas said cheerfully, and the platypus jumped right onto him, pushing him underwater. For the boy, it felt a bit like his pet was petting him when Perry's wet fur touched his chest, and he held his pet close, looking at his face in the water before releasing the platypus. After Phineas righted himself, they began to have a whole lot of fun.

With great agility, the platypus did a lot of fast turns and dips, and Phineas followed him, paying no heed where they were going, but simply let Perry lead him.

Perhaps it is hard to fathom for some since Perry is the pet and Phineas is the owner, and therefore it must be Phineas leading Perry. How can it be the other way around?

Yet Phineas had this perspective on the pet-owner relationship which he'd told his friends and family a number of times, and over time it had developed into a full concept, best summed up in this sentence," Perry is a boy's best friend." To the boy (and his stepbro as well), Perry isn't a pet, but rather a great, loyal friend, one who no one could find any other thing better.

As for the monotreme, he wanted nothing more than something just like this, getting into the water with his owners and showing them what cool tricks he's capable of. He had to let them know that mother nature didn't make platypuses mindless creatures but a lot more, while also keeping his secret identity classified information. Surely there was no better way to accomplish this than having a swim together. Besides, it helped to strengthen the bond between them.

Phineas was lying on the bottom of the pool with his pet snuggling against his chin. The platypus stepped on his shoulder afterwards, which made the boy quite content, regardless of his, and as a matter of fact, Perry's too, inability to breathe underwater.

Phineas swam in the way Perry did, except that he was swimming on his back. He learned some awesome tricks from the semi-aquatic mammal as well before he could no longer hold his breath. He swam all the way from the bottom to the surface.

The redhead was a little bewildered when he saw Ferb coming out to take a breath, but he could not ask him because his mouth was so close to the surface, he would probably have swallowed some water if he had tried to talk. Nevertheless, the Brit knew from the look in his stepbrother's eyes the question on his mind, and he responded with a sarcastic narrowing of the eyes, meaning "it's not like I could breathe underwater".

 _Ferb is really great at breath-hold diving and stuff like that. Man, I keep forgetting that he breathes oxygen into his lungs just like me._

The kids went on to play with Perry. Since they were so engaged in that, nobody noticed that Ferb had left for a moment until he came back. A keyboard was seen in his hands. The Brit put it on his inner tube and got into the water, gently as ever so as to not disturb the balance of the keyboard.

The Brit started playing an II-V-I chord progression in B flat major. Each time he repeated the progression, he switches to another similar chord, with the II chords and the V chords being dominant chords, while the I chords were major chords, sometimes suspended chords. Therefore, it sounds jazzy.

Phineas recognized this instantly as one of his favourite songs, Sunday Morning by Maroon 5. He sang the opening riff, using falsetto voice on high notes.

Phineas continued singing the song, but just before he finished the first verse, i.e. the first four lines, he saw his stepbrother giving him a look saying "I'll take the pre-chorus".

As soon as Ferb began to sing, everyone was utterly amazed by his delicate tone and refined techniques. Additionally, his British accent was quite soothing, but at the same time fitting perfectly with Phineas's wacky voice prior somehow. Perry, sitting on Phineas's lap, chattered along to the music.

Phineas joined the Brit as he got to the chorus, while Isabella harmonized with them. Perry's chatters became rhythmic.

Ferb changed the melody a little on the second verse, throwing in fancy riffs with brilliant high notes here and there. His stepbro and Isabella came in on the pre-chorus, while the Brit himself didn't sing the second verse.

The Brit played the solo with Phineas doubling with his own vocals and playing some backing chords on the ukulele. The two sang the rest together, splitting into two parts from time to time. Isabella would join in occasionally as well, making it a three-part harmony. Ferb concluded the song with a short improvised vocal riff, and his pet added a chatter at the very end.

Ferb put the keyboard on the lawn. Perry hopped into the water and swam by his feet. The redhead also dove in, bringing the ukulele with him (it wouldn't matter since the instrument is waterproof), and he made his way to his stepbrother and his pet platypus.

Phineas played the instrument underwater, while the platypus and the Brit swung their bodies. They did some tricks around Phineas, and Phineas kept himself at roughly the same depth.

Phineas resurfaced to see Isabella, who had a dreamy smile on her face. The boy smiled back at her, not knowing that he's the reason why she had smiled, as he handed the girl the ukulele.

He allowed himself to sink below the surface, just to find his stepbro under Perry, his fingers rubbing his pet's stomach and his legs intertwined with his pet's.

While Perry moved his beaver tail up and down, Ferb twisted his body with his arms folded. He then raised his arms to his head and spread them out wide; as he swung and flapped them in every way imaginable or unimaginable, his body gradually untangled itself, and he shrugged his shoulder a couple of times before swinging the upper part of his own body clockwise.

Perry felt the boy's chest pressing against his duckbill and his body falling upon the platypus's back. Eventually, a significant portion of the animal's vision was covered; he could only see a small area below.

Ferb leaned back as the platypus dove deeper, and their legs separated shortly after. His stepbrother and his pet swam aside him as he showed his crazy dance moves at the bottom of the pool as though he was on land, however performing a lot more since he could exploit the nature of water, thereby enabling Ferb to have an even greater variety of moves underwater.

The redhead pulled his pet closer. The two moved towards one another until Phineas's pointy nose touched Perry's bill. There wasn't any music playing, but the trio danced at the same pace before going back to swimming.

After a while, the trio went to the surface and saw their friends just in front of them. Perry swam to Isabella, but he also lightly slapped the bully on the waist with his tail as he passed him. After Isabella was done with petting the monotreme, everyone took their dives.

Baljeet thought Buford was coming at him, so he kicked his legs faster, trying unnecessarily to get away. Not until he realized that the bully wasn't chasing him but Perry instead did he come out to breathe.

Finally, Buford caught him by the webbed feet when Perry wasn't aware; yet it seemed like he had triggered something inside of the platypus as well, for Perry started swimming really quickly, making a number of rapid turns along the way. This had shocked Buford so much that he had been instinctively holding onto the animal the whole time, which turned out to be not so clever.

The bully went to every single spot in the pool before he ran out of breath, which was possible only because he had been grabbing onto an overly excited platypus. Yet he was still terribly out of breath when they finally stopped at the surface, and he had to lay his head on Perry's back for a rest as he breathed heavily, his eyes still wide open. _My mind just got blown,_ thought the bully.

A few minutes later, Buford and Perry dove and rejoined their friends. One could draw an analogy between the magnificent sight to a visual concerto, where Perry was the soloist, Ferb was the conductor, and Phineas was the concertmaster. Even Baljeet had improved in this particular field after the dance, and he was much more comfortable underwater than ever. He was probably able to hold his breath longer.

Perry showed off his agility and versatility during the cadenza, and then everyone ended the whole dance with a high-spirited tutti. All were above the surface soon.

Perry wished to do this all the time, but he could not, even though his owners would quite likely be willing to. _My work is the only reason I get to live with these two awesome owners, Phineas and Ferb, but it also prevents me from having fun with them too often._


	10. Chapter 10

Doofenshmirtz was just done with the blueprint for the following day's inators, so he decided he would watch some videos online. He signed in to the website of his nemesis to look for more stuff from him, but he was taken by surprise because he came across a video which the secret agent had posted a year ago under the title "To Doofenshmirtz".

The doctor was perplexed. _I'm just an evil scientist, nobody loves me. Why would anyone in this world, let alone Perry the Platypus, want to tell me anything in whatever way?_

He clicked on the video anyway. It wasn't like he'd see something more hurtful than his past. It was already so tragic that nothing would suffice to weigh him down more. Besides, since Perry the Platypus was one of the representing figures of what they call "good", Doofenshmirtz did not think he would try to hurt anyone, even someone categorized as "evil" like him.

The video began with Perry playing his guitar, strumming the chords Fm, Ab, Eb, and Db each once. _Eh, it must be a song,_ thought Doofenshmirtz, _probably another cover by Perry the Platypus._ However, he was proven wrong when the subtitles came out on the screen a few seconds later.

 _To Doofenshmirtz_

 _Written by Perry_

 _Vocals, lead guitar, and drums by Perry_

 _Rhythm guitar and bass by Pinky_

 _Keyboard and backing vocals by Peter_

 _Recorded by Carl Karl_

 _Production by Perry and_ _Carl Karl_

 _Video by Perry and Carl Karl_

"Wait, so it's an original song? And it's about me?" Doofenshmirtz thought he'd gone mad. His nemesis wrote a song directed at him? "Guess I ought to give it a listen, huh?" He said to himself.

As the high-energy, up-tempo intro played, the music video opened with a close shot of Perry playing the drums, but it had only shown his feet and his hands before getting to the second shot, where a pink hand was seen strumming the strings on a bass guitar.

The camera moved to Perry's fretting hand, showing him playing the electric guitar. Yet, because none of those shots showed their faces, Doofenshmirtz wasn't able to identify any of them, including his own nemesis Perry the Platypus.

The video showed Doofenshmirtz sitting up on his bed, unable to sleep, as Perry's voice came. The enunciations were rather clear, and therefore the doctor knew what he was singing.

 _Midnight, broken down_

 _Unfinished blueprints all around_

Playing his red guitar, Perry showed up onscreen along with Pinky, who was playing a purple guitar.

 _Couldn't fight, 'bout to drown_

 _Try to scream but not a sound_

The man was reminded of his personal experiences as he listened to the song, but he was still too oblivious to realize that the lyrics are about him. "I actually have spent some of the nights staying up really late just to finish my blueprints, especially when I was stuck."

 _Mockery, humiliation_

Some of the evil scientist's tragic flashbacks appeared; Perry's tone darkened, whereas Peter sang in falsetto a tenth above. Peter's voice was so faint that it could barely be heard; however, Doofenshmirtz felt like the words being sung were creeping underneath his skin.

Quick flashes of inators exploding and the doctor screaming, "Curse you Perry the Platypus" was shown.

 _Grudges he's been holding onto_

 _Failure brought more devastation_

"You are the one who foils my every scheme, Perry the platypus, and then you put that in a song to me? What, are you trying to brag or something?"

 _His preposterous imagination_

"If this is about me, I have to disagree. Vendor machines taking over is possible, and it's absolutely not a preposterous idea. Or perhaps he wasn't referring to that?"

Soon scenes from Perry and Doofenshmirtz's first encounter came onto the screen.

 _I was behind that mailbox_

 _You spotted me in a while_

"Yeah, right; you didn't know how to hide."

 _My techniques weren't refined enough_

 _But why you've got that bright, cheerful smile_

"Well, I was quite happy that day, but I really don't know why; maybe it was because I didn't face any misfortune that day, or maybe I was actually kind of happy to get a new nemesis." He stopped the video and said to himself, imagining that his nemesis was beside him and that he was explaining to him.

 _'Cause evil is the last resort_

As the chorus played, the video showed Perry, Pinky, Peter playing the guitar, the bass, and the piano respectively. Additionally, the platypus had a microphone in front of him, and he was singing into it. The surroundings were really dark, and strong lights were focused on their faces and arms, sweeping diagonally; thus the scene looked sort of terrifying.

 _You're only wishing to mask yourself under the darkness_

 _Don't wanna be the one they abhor_

"That's pretty accurate, I gotta admit. I always hate the fact that everyone likes Roger more than me! I mean, can you imagine it? Throughout my life, no one loves me, okay maybe except Vanessa, but they all love Roger! My parents, my acquaintances, my neighbours, people in the entire TRI-STATE AREA!"

The doctor caught himself right after the words came out of his mouth," Oh man, I shouldn't have said it that way. It's a different context, although it's the same phrase, it's not taking over I was talking about."

Then he resumed the video as well as the music, and he saw himself in it again.

 _Couldn't take it so you search for an escape, overstressed_

 _Despised, neglected_

 _Since the day that you were born_

When Doofenshmirtz saw a picture of himself in the hospital baby bed with only the medical caretaker aside him, followed by a couple more pictures of him in the Danville forest fed by a mother ocelot who adopted him, he felt like he was hit hard. Memories came flooding in, and he had no means to stop it.

 _Grumbling, stumbling_

 _Telling me you were so torn_

He simply sighed.

 _You trapped me for the first time_

 _Won't stop rambling 'bout your miseries_

"Hey, they're called backstories, you know."

 _They say you ain't worth a dime_

"Roger is always the lucky one, and I'm always the unfortunate one; plus he does most things better than me. Arrgh, I hate him so much!"

 _Messed up with your intense jealousy_

 _'Cause evil is the last resort_

 _You're only wishing to mask yourself under the darkness_

 _Don't wanna be the one they abhor_

 _Couldn't take it so you search for an escape, overstressed_

Perry rolled a grand guitar solo with seemingly impossible techniques. On the screen, Doofenshmirtz was shown getting embarrassed and humiliated by people around him. There were also some more scenes from the times when he was defeated by his nemesis.

 _Evil is the last resort_

Perry sang in ad libitum on the last syllable as the final Ab major chord played, dropping from a high chest voice and then climbing up to his falsetto voice. The video ended with a shot of the three animal agents; Perry was holding a microphone with both paws, whereas behind the platypus, Peter and Pinky were standing face to face.

The man was speechless. Not only was he astonished by Perry's musical ability, but he was also overwhelmed by the message delivered to him through the song. He did not want to believe it, and yet he could never deny it, either. Doofenshmirtz sat there still. _Maybe I'm not really evil?_ He questioned.

 _No, it can't be. I'm an evil scientist. I am evil._ He told himself repeatedly in his mind. _But hey, you have got to admit that Perry the Platypus is quite a great musician_ _. I didn't know that he could write a song before._

The doctor glanced at the clock. "Ooh, it's time for my favourite show! Oh yeah!" He shouted in excitement as he rushed to the couch and turned on the TV, forgetting about his intense emotions just a few moments ago.

The friends swam in the water tank for a little more time. They had much fun with the platypus, and Baljeet eventually decided that he would participate in his friend's activity next Tuesday. Maybe it's dangerous, but he's pretty sure that he'll be safe around his friends even in the vast ocean, and that he would have a great, unforgettable experience. Besides, he had participated in all of Phineas and Ferb's activities before, so how could he miss out on this one?

Therefore, he agreed to Phineas's invitation. Phineas seemed to be really happy about it."That's awesome, Baljeet," said the redhead,"but I really think you should try breath-hold diving. To be honest, it's going to be my first time swimming out there in the middle of the ocean, too. But I'm going with no diving equipment. And it's going to be a lot more fun that way, I can assure you that."

"Um, I am not sure. I need some time to think it through," said Baljeet.

Phineas said, "it's fine, don't rush yourself. I guess it's good to consider this thoroughly. In the meantime, I'll be swimming underneath with Ferb. Do you want to come with me or stay here and think?"

"I'll come with you while I think about the issue. Actually, it does not matter much for me, because I often find myself holding my breath right after I had finished with a challenging problem or a tough choice. I tend to unconsciously hold my own breath when I was thinking very hard," said Baljeet.

"All right then." They dove into the water once again, following the Brit. They soon saw Perry approaching from behind and Isabella not far ahead of them.

Baljeet thought about it for quite a while before answering his friend. He was still a bit concerned about the safety, but at the same time, he was told it was supposed to be fun. In addition, he had heard some time ago that Buford was going freediving then as well, so there's a good chance that he could wind up being the only being who's in a wetsuit.

While underwater, the redhead grabbed Baljeet's hand by accident, which caused Baljeet to flip over. Baljeet let out a muffled cry of surprise and righted himself. He saw the platypus passing from above his chest when he was doing so.

Despite this, Baljeet did not surface right away; instead, he stayed underwater for a few more seconds until he got out of breath. What he didn't realize is that he had actually spent more time underwater than before. It was probably because he was drowned in his thoughts. He went under the surface as he kept thinking.

Underwater, Phineas and Ferb did some tricks, and then they fist-bumped each other. Perry, on the other hand, kept swimming back and forth through Baljeet's feet and past his shoulder, rubbing his fur against the boy's skin, then the platypus began to swim in circles around him.

The semi-aquatic mammal did that for a short while before swimming off, and Baljeet, for some reason, followed him. He didn't know why he was doing that, but he felt like there was something in his bones telling him to do so.

He doesn't usually just listen to his guts like that, but he was too focused on considering whether he should go without breathing supply on the activity next Tuesday to care. Strangely enough, Perry was, in fact, swimming slowly, so much so that Baljeet could keep up.

Perry led Baljeet to various spots in the pool, making sudden turns and dips from time to time before they went over to where Phineas was. He saw Isabella there as well.

Phineas, Baljeet, and Isabella surfaced. Halfway to the surface, Baljeet saw Perry swimming past him and got inspired. He made his final decision. When he emerged from the surface with his friends, Baljeet had already pondered backwards and forwards on the issue, and now he could finally give an answer, "all right, Phineas, I guess I will go without breath supply." Baljeet said, sitting on an inner tube.

"Sweet. Meet you in our backyard next Tuesday then," Phineas held onto the exact inner tube Baljeet was sitting on and said.

Perry and Ferb came over. "Hi, Ferb. Hello, Perry." Phineas said, scooping his pet up from the water, who shook violently, splashing the kids gathering around him.

"Perry is indeed a boy's best friend. Right, Ferb?" said Phineas while patting the platypus.

Ferb answered, giving a thumbs-up with a grin clearly visible on his face. "But he's also something more. Perry is, and always will be, our nonverbal buddy."

Everyone dove to the bottom and made an upside-down pyramid with their bodies underwater. They kept changing positions, while Perry swam through the gaps between the children. One time they even balanced with Baljeet at the bottom and Buford at the top since the buoyancy of the water helped a lot.

Eventually, they couldn't hold their breaths anymore and broke the surface. The gang had one last session with Perry, and then they all climb out of the water tank, which disappeared with a flash of light as soon as the last person, Phineas, got out of it. Once out of the water, the platypus shook his fur were basking themselves under the mild afternoon sun when Linda came out. "I've had a long nap and feel much better now. Now, who wants pies?"

"Me!" The kids exclaimed, wiping themselves off with the towels that they were handed. All of them walked into the house, having changed into their everyday clothes.


	11. Chapter 11

Sitting at the table, Phineas eagerly told his mother what they were doing in the backyard. "That's great, Phineas." Linda said, taking her son's words lightly. She had gotten used to those fantasies. Mostly Candace's, but sometimes Phineas would tell her something as well.

"Mom, Ferb and I are taking our friends with us to visit some of Ferb's old friends next Tuesday," Phineas brought their plan up. "His dolphin friends."

"Phineas, you have such a great imagination," answered his mother, apparently not believing what she had just heard and shaking it off with the perception that Phineas must be fantasizing, as usual. She left the table, leaving the childrens there.

The gang discussed a little more on the planned trip next Tuesday, and just as the topic began to turn to their love for Perry, the platypus crept underneath the table, going unnoticed.

Isabella was taken by surprise when Perry hopped into her lap unexpectedly. Staring at the gorgeous creature, she was completely stupefied and speechless, with only one thing on her mind: _speak of the devil. I wonder why he jumped into my lap and not Phineas's, though._

The redhead saw that, and he remarked, "Hey, I think Perry likes you, Isabella." Isabella petted the platypus for a while, and then Perry shifted over to his owner Phineas.

Isabella was struck by the one word Phineas had said. The word is "like". _Like? Well I like you, Phineas. A lot, more than you can even start to imagine. But you could never tell, even with me giving those all-too-serious hints. Day after day, week after week, month after month, summer after summer! And now you see that your pet like me, but no, you don't see that I like you a million times more than he likes me. Oh, when will you do?_

She moved closer to her crush, who allowed her to cuddle on his shoulder without a word. However, the girl knew he was only being his kind and friendly self; there were absolutely no romantic feelings involved the way the boy saw it. He didn't show any affection toward Isabella.

They all went on talking. Ferb had veen taciturn throughout the entire talk, simply listening to others. He left the table and headed upstairs right after the discussion had come to an end.

Ferb had always wanted to write a song to express his unrequited love for his pet (and vice versa), but after the second dimension incident, it was really hard not to write about Perry without writing something relating to him being a secret agent. He don't want to write that kibd of stuff, because if he really did, Phineas and Perry would know that he had known Perry's secret, and Perry's secret would be revealed to the redhead, too.

But now the perfect idea came to him. Like a bolt out of the blue, it struck him. He had finally found the way to word it, and it doesn't involve disclosing his forbidden knowledge.

The Brit was back rather soon with a notebook in his hand. He sat down and wrote, in cursive, in his notebook, with a pen between the pages. Phineas got curious and asked, "what are you writing, Ferb?"

Ferb, having just finished writing, showed Phineas his notebook so that his stepbrother could see what he was writing. "Oh, it's a poem about Perry" -Ferb shook his head- "oh yeah, a song about him," Phineas corrected himself. "I think I should have gotten it right the first time." Phineas added, "anyway, that is quite cool."

They played a couple of board games. In one game, Buford had attempted to cheat by switching his card with one of those on the board; nevertheless, Ferb caught him as the bully was just about to reach out.

 _I can see what you're trying to do; you can't hide from me. You ain't all that sneaky, no. So just don't do it, unless you want anybody else to notice it,_ said Ferb through his hard glare. Embarrassed, Buford ditched his initial intention, even though there were actually nobody else than himself and Ferb who knew.

After their friends had left, Ferb strummed a bunch of chords on his wooden acoustic guitar. He decided on the chords very quickly, and he wrote them in his notebook, above the corresponding lyrics. Then he wrote the chords on another page again.

 _Verses:_

 _C Am/C Am_

 _Em Em7 F Fmaj7_

 _Dm6 G7 Cadd9_

 _Chorus:_

 _Cmaj7 Am Am/G_

 _Fmaj7 G Em_

 _Esus Dm Am/D Am/E_

 _Dm7 F G/B G7/C_

 _Cmaj7 Am Am/G_

 _Fmaj7 G Em_

 _Esus Dm Am/D Am/E_

 _Dm9 F6 G7/B G_

 _Outro:_

 _Emaj7 C#m C#m/B_

 _Amaj7 B G#m_

 _G#sus F#m C#m/F# C#m/G#_

 _F#m9 A6 B7/D# B_

"So you want to borrow my room to record a song?" Ferb nodded, and his sister continued, "but why don't you just do it in you and Phineas's room?"

Ferb gave an expression, but Candace could not decode his message at first. She had to think for a moment before she finally got what he was trying to say. "Oh, you meant that my room has better acoustics." Ferb gave her a thumbs-up.

Candace said, "all right then." She left her room, but of course, not before reminding her younger stepbrother, "but Ferb, don't you mess with my things." The Brit gave another thumbs-up, meaning "for sure I won't". He proceeded to start recording the song as soon as Candace closed the door.

He played the guitar as he sang. It wasn't long before he had completed with the recording. He went out of the room with his guitar and his laptop, which has the final edited and polished recording of this original song of his, Nonverbal.

Ferb showed Phineas the song, and they uploaded it onto Ferb's blog. People around the world started to listen to the song right away, and the downloads skyrocketed overnight. Nine million downloads within twenty minutes of the uploading of the song.

Perry gave the song a listen in his hover car the following day, on his way to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, his destination to fight evil every day.

Well, technically speaking, it was not really "every day", since Doofenshmirtz would sometimes call in sick, in which case Major Monogram would still send the secret agent platypus to his place, and Perry would end up taking care of his terribly sick nemesis. It had been always like that.

Additionally, the evil scientist's schemes weren't all " evil. Some of them were just silly and made no sense.

The very first time he heard the song, the platypus fell in love with it. _Ferb wrote song for me, that's perfect. Honestly, what is said in the song is exactly what I feel. And the music is so beautiful, even if it's just Ferb and his guitar. I am so going to make a cover of this one._


	12. Chapter 12

**He used to be a misperceived monotreme, but now he's a secret agent in the OWCA, too. Let's welcome...**

 **Aussie the Platypus!**

 **Aussie: *chatters***

 **Aussie, put on your translators, please. You know we can't understand you without them.**

 **Aussie: *waves both hands***

 **What? Don't you have them with you? Oh well, good thing that Perry's coming in a minute. You can borrow his translators, I suppose.**

 **Aussie*turns back suddenly***

 **What did you see, Aussie?**

 **A teenage girl walks out from the shadows. She had brown hair that goes down to her shoulders and brown eyes that sort of resemble Perry's. She's wearing tight, black leggings and black long-sleeved tunic. On her feet, she's wearing dark boots.**

 **Ah, it's fanfic writer VibeQuake, the author of Misperceived Monotreme Part II! Hello, VibeQuake! Looking great.**

 ***Audience cheer***

 **VibeQuake: Hi, Aussie. What's up?**

 **Aussie: *stares at VibeQuake***

 **Perry walked up to Aussie and VibeQuake.**

 **Perry: Oh, hello Aussie. Hey Vique. Aussie, you left your translators on my office desk yesterday. *hands Aussie the translators***

 **Aussie: *puts on and turns on the translators* Thank you, Perry. You're the best.**

 **Perry: Don't mention it. I've just finished making a beat, you wanna hear it?**

 **Aussie: Sure thing, mate.**

 **Perry took off his fedora and pulled his laptop out of it. He opened a file and music started to play.**

 **VibeQuake: *starts shaking her body awkwardly***

 **Aussie*looks at VibeQuake strangely***

 **Perry: What are you doing?**

 **VibeQuake: Hey, I'm not called VibeQuake for no reason. Besides, this beats is really catchy.**

 **Aussie: Well, I suppose you can't argue with that.**

 **And now, onto the story!**

 **Perry: Wait, aren't you supposed to do the disclaimer?**

 **Um, it's up there.**

 **Perry and Aussie: *looks at the ceiling***

 **VibeQuake: *also looks at the ceiling***

 **The disclaimer appears magically out of nowhere on the ceiling.**

 **Perry: Okay then. You can start the story now.**

 **But seriously, the disclaimer is up there. In the summary.**

"Again!"

Perry was singing at the top of his lungs in an empty hall, twitching his eyes and stretching his back, when Aussie walked in. Perry opened his eyes and saw him in a while. He gave him a look that said, "Hey Aussie. Didn't notice you there."

Aussie gestured him to continue. They finished the song, "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" by Panic! at the Disco, together. Perry's voice was deep and strong while Aussie's was a lot brighter and also more versatile. Aussie did a cool improvisation at the end, earning a shocked face from Perry. Even after all these years, he still wondered how had Aussie managed to do this.

"Wow, that was absolutely impressive. And I thought I'd freak you out with that volume," said Perry, "at that part."

"Apparently, it didn't," Aussie answered with a short laugh, "I was never afraid of loudness. Besides, I've heard you singing that song a couple of times before."

"Oh, so that's why you know the lyrics! In fact, I was just about to ask. By the way, you sing really well," said Perry.

"Thank you, Perry." Aussie noticed the papers on the grand piano. "What's that?"

"Oh, it's a song written by one of my owners, Ferb, called _Nonverbal._ I thought it was pretty nice and decided to do a cover of this song. Hey, maybe you could join me! What do you say?"

"I'm in," Aussie answered promptly. Perry handed him the sheet of paper, and Aussie started reading the lyrics, which were written in cursive, right away.

Aussie had no trouble reading the text, and thus it wasn't long before he finished. He commented, "such a great song on your pet-owner bond."

"Yep, we do have a really close bond. But the song could be about friendship too, you know," Perry said, smiling just a little, "by the way, Ferb had uploaded the original version on his blog. It's called very straightforwardly _Ferblog._ It's only him and his guitar, but it's some quality stuff. You gotta check that out."

Yeah, I will."

Perry picked up his guitar from a corner before walking back to Aussie. He played the intro on his guitar began to sing, and not long after he had started did Aussie start to tap his foot to the beat.

 _Back to the start_

 _Something in your look that takes me higher_

 _All in my heart_

 _Only you could stop this raging fire, yeah_

 _I gotta have you by my side_

"Wait, I have an idea," Aussie held up a paw, "we should double the last four notes an octave above."

"Great idea. Can you do the second voice, Aussie?"

"Sure, no problem." Perry sang from the beginning again, except this time with Aussie doubling him at said place.

"You do the next, it's the same melody with different lyrics," Perry said. Thus Aussie sang,

 _I don't know why_

 _How you swim and chatter gives me chills_

 _Webbed feet, duckbill_

 _Everything about you makes me thrilled_

 _With you, I'm in endless delight_

Perry doubled him an octave above at "endless delight". Both platypuses sang the chorus together,

 _In this whole world, only you see what I see_

 _Don't need a word still, you could understand me_

 _'Cause you're my nonverbal buddy_

 _My nonverbal buddy_

Perry told the other one that he would sing the following two lines solo, and that he could get in at " nonverbal".

 _I won't forget the first time you looked at me_

 _With your eyes crossed, it got me lured in so deep_

 _Now you're my nonverbal buddy_

 _My nonverbal buddy_

"Aussie, I'll let you do these verses, but try to change up the melody a little so it's not exactly the same as before."

Aussie thought for a moment before opening his bill to sing,

 _One platypus_

 _Body like a perfect piece of art_

He did not change a note up to this point. However, the next line was sung with altered melody. The notes were changed from B, B, G, and B to E, E, D, and E.

 _Without your love_

 _How was I supposed to shoot for the stars, ooh_

Aussie simply improvised on this line, using falsetto on "I", and adding the "ooh" in the end, which was also sung in falsetto.

 _Illuminate my desire_

Aussie paused when he realized that Perry wasn't doubling him, "I thought you were going to do the second voice for me?"

"Oh no, I think we should just leave it like this since in that way it feels fresher," answered Perry.

"How come?" Aussie asked, clearly confounded.

"Well, because we had finished the two verses before with another voice doubling the lead vocals, the audience would expect the same thing to occur here, namely the words _my desire_. Therefore, when we not double the vocals, they are presented with a sense of surprise."

Aussie nodded in agreement and resumed singing.

 _If I were stuck_

 _Pretty sure you're there to hear me call_

 _(hear you call)_

Perry sang in duet with Aussie.

 _I ain't afraid_

 _For I know you'll catch me lest I fall, oh yeah_

 _So bring me through those darkest nights_

 _(darkest nights)_

They sang together,

 _In this whole world, only you see what I see_

 _Don't need a word still, you could understand me_

 _'Cause you're my nonverbal buddy_

 _My nonverbal buddy_

Perry sang,

 _I won't forget the first time you looked at me_

 _With your eyes crossed, it got me lured in so deep_

And Aussie took the next two lines but altering the melody.

 _Now you're my nonverbal buddy_

 _My nonverbal buddy_

Aussie hit B just below high C on the word "buddy". He prolonged the note until Perry joined in to sing the chorus, and then Aussie descended in pitch with an ad lib.

The final part is in E major, while the other parts they had sung is in C major, making the melody exactly a major third higher than the choruses before.

 _In this whole world, only you see what I see_

 _Don't need a word still, you could understand me(understand me)_

Aussie responded Perry with a couple more ad lib.

 _'Cause you're my nonverbal buddy(nonverbal buddy)_

 _My nonverbal buddy(yeah)_

 _I won't forget the first time you looked at me(when I looked at you)_

 _With your eyes crossed, it got me lured in so deep(so deep, oh)_

Both sing the very last two lines together:

 _Now you're my nonverbal buddy_

 _My nonverbal buddy_

Perry strummed one final E chord on his guitar, finishing the song.

"Great improvisations, Aussie," Perry complimented.

"Thank you." Aussie gave the reply, acting much more confidently than a few years ago when he had first met Perry. All the training and fighting evil across the years had transformed him quite a bit; he was not the timid little platypus he used to be anymore. "I learned those riffs partly from you."

"Really? Cool." Perry was glad to hear that, "I wonder what your other influences are, though."

"Well, I also listen to songs by a lot of singers and bands, most of which introduced to me by your covers. Besides, Pinky would recommend me some pretty great music from time to time as well," Aussie said.

"Oh, I see. Let's sing that song over again, shall we?" Aussie simply gave a nod. Perry began to sing, and he gave Aussie an encouraging glimpse when it was his turn to sing the lead.

When they finished, Perry remarked, "we sound incredible. Those harmonies are all right on, and Aussie, your ad-libs got even better this time."

"Thank you so much," Aussie said to Perry before both platypuses left the hall. "We may go to my studio to record our vocals tomorrow," said Perry, "hey, fancy a dip at the pool?"

"Of course!" Aussie replied. "We're platypuses, after all."

"Can't agree more."

* * *

Perry and Aussie climbed out of the pool, completely worn out and panting quite heavily. They had stayed for too long underwater, even as two secret agent platypuses. "This chase has really taken its toll on our lungs," Aussie said between breaths, lying weakly on the floor. His friend and also a senior agent of his was lying next to him.

"But it is quite fun, isn't it?" Perry said, having just starting to catch his own breath.

"Yes, yes it is."

"I'm not sure why, but you sound like Phineas when you say that. He says that a lot. He is often asked if he's too young for something that he's doing, and he would generally reply with these exact four words." Perry and Aussie stood up, having had enough rest.

"Oh yeah, I remember you told me that he as well as Ferb has been an inventor at a rather young age. Is he musically talented like his brother, too?" Perry nodded.

"See you, mate!" said Aussie to Perry when they parted.

Perry replied, "Goodbye, Aussie."

* * *

"Oh, there you are, Perry." Phineas said, "Hey Ferb, why does Perry smell like a combination of cream and chlorine?"

Perry chattered, unable to help but feel a little bit nervous. Ferb told his stepbro, "he was probably at the pool," he looked at Phineas and continued, "albeit I wonder who it would be to have been kind enough to give him a bath after that."

As a matter of fact, Ferb lied in order to conceal his secret knowledge from both his pet Perry and his stepbrother Phineas. He, in fact, knew that Perry must have taken a shower by himself after he went swimming in the pool.

Ferb gave an extra look at his pet platypus before walking away. _Lovely, he didn't suspect a thing,_ thought the Brit as he saw Perry's mindless expression.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Three chapters in a day, in honor of the fantastic VibeQuake for uploading three chapters of her story, Misperceived Monotreme Part II, in one day!**

Aussie stepped into Perry's studio and saw Perry sitting in a chair in front of a computer right away. He looked around; there were several bass guitars and guitars in the corner, and right next to the computer was an electric keyboard attached to a synthesizer. Aussie also spotted the drums in the back.

He was greeted with a warm smile. "Hi, Aus. Ready to start?" Aussie nodded. "Great. Where do you want to start?"

"I would like to start with the drums," answered Aussie,"it's good to set up the beat first."

"I suppose so," Perry said, and Aussie turned to the drums in the back of the room. "Hold on," said Perry, stopping Aussie from going toward the drums, "I don't think we should use actual drums. We can use these instead." Perry pointed at a bunch of square or rectangular buttons on the keyboard he was standing in front of.

Aussie was confounded since he had never seen the device in his life before, so he asked, "what are these?"

"These things are called 'drum pads'. The pads are connected to the synthesizer you see, which will produce a different drum sound when you hit the pad." Perry hit one of the drum pads and it made a sound which resembled that of a snare drum.

"It kind of sounds like the snare drum, but it's not exactly the same," remarked Aussie.

"It is not supposed to. The sound has been adjusted, equalized, and dampened. You can clearly hear it's softer and with little acoustic noise, contrary to the actual drum kit," explained Perry.

Aussie was just beginning to grasp this new concept. He tapped the pads with his fingers for a couple seconds and found the kick drum pad, the open hi-hat pad, the closed hi-hat pad, and the hi-hat pedal pad.

Perry told his friend, "the rest of the pads are mostly tom-toms," he drummed on some specific pads, making the sound of various tom-toms, "except for two: the hand clap pad and the snare drum side pad." Perry drummed on those two pads when he spoke of them to demonstrate that.

Having a few little ideas of this something called "drum pad", Aussie asked, "are you using them for our cover instead of real drums because of its sound?"

"Yes. It fits the style of the song better."

Aussie gave another try. This time, he could play a beat with ease, which amazed even himself. "That's impressive, Aus, I have to say," Perry said, "you have got the drills really quickly."

"Actually, I think it's probably because I play actual drums. Therefore, it's not quite hard for me to play drum pads." Perry nodded in understanding and agreement.

"Do you want to play the drums part?"

Aussie wasn't certain. _Should I? I might screw up the recording as I'm just getting the drills of it,_ thought Aussie.

Perry saw his friend's concern, and he encouraged him, "don't worry, you have plenty of time, so we can redo it over and over if you like. It's not like we have to finish the whole recording today."

Aussie felt comforted. Picking up his confidence, he looked at Perry and told him that he would play the drums part. He began to strike the pads as soon as Perry started recording.

They listened to Aussie's work. "It's brilliant," Perry remarked, "and that was only your first try. Now we just need to quantize it."

"What do you mean?"

"Quantizing means making the timing of a recording more perfect," replied Perry as he worked on his computer, "and- done."

"So, what next?" asked Aussie.

"What about the rhythm guitar?"

Aussie agreed to the suggestion. He walked to the corner and picked up a yellow guitar. He handed Perry the guitar, who played a brief C-Am-F-G chord progression on it. "All right, let's go."

Aussie recorded Perry playing the guitar. The platypus was strumming the strings with his bare hand. After that, Aussie grabbed the bass while Perry was quantizing the rhythm guitar part, which the two had just recorded.

They then recorded the keyboards and synths. Aussie played the keyboard, whereas Perry controlled the synthesizer. The former had learned how to play the piano during his training with the latter. However, just as he played the last note and lifted his fingers off the keys, Aussie realized he had made a mistake in the playing. "Oh, no! I transposed to D major in the outro when it's supposed to be in E major!"

Perry told him, "it's okay, Aussie. We can either cut off that section and record again, or I can digitally transpose it, maybe with autotune. I'll leave the choice to you." Aussie decided on the former very soon, so they replaced the wrong part with a new recording.

"I think it's time to record our vocals," said Aussie. They walked up to the microphone. The vocals recording went extremely smoothly. "Bravo, man," said Perry.

Aussie was delighted to hear that. "We sound perfect, don't we?"

"You bet. Every note is right on pitch, but we still gotta autotune this a bit to give it a better pop feel."

Perry then recorded the bass and the lead guitar, completing the whole recording. Aussie watched him editing the tracks. "All done! Shall we listen to our final song?"

"Yeah of course!"

Both platypuses decided it was absolutely fantastic after listening to their result. They left the studio happily. "I'll contact Pinky to see if he could help us out with the video," said Perry.

Aussie replied, "that's awesome."

"I've finished editing the entire video and syncopated it with our audio," said Perry, "come on, let's give it a watch." Perry, Pinky, and Aussie gathered at the computer. Aussie pressed play, and the video began with texts on black surroundings,

 _Nonverbal_

 _Originally by Ferb Fletcher_

 _Cover by Perry and Aussie_

 _Produced by Perry and Aussie_

 _Video by Pinky_

The video opened with Aussie sitting on a bed in a room with dim twilight, reminiscing the day he first met Perry. The platypus crossed his arms over his knees and hung his head in deep thought. The video went into a flashback of Aussie's, where Perry was seen holding Aussie down in his lair. The platypus underneath struggled but couldn't escape. The scene involved a few close shots of both platypuses' eyes.

The video then proceeded to show Perry helping Aussie up and went into a scene in which the two platypuses were chasing one another underwater in a pool. They made some sharp turns and sudden dips, as well as flipping over and other acrobatic moves in the water.

Four webbed feet appeared on the screen. It was soon revealed that it was Perry and Aussie standing at the pool they were shown swimming in previously when the shot shifted upwards. They were seen embracing each other.

At the chorus, it showed Perry teaching a young Aussie basic karate moves. He looked terribly timid and nervous, and his actions were visibly much weaker than those of his trainer's. Then, the two platypuses were seen playing the guitar together. Perry was playing his favorite blue guitar while Aussie was playing a black guitar.

Aussie was singing and playing the piano at the same time in a hall when Perry walked right in. Perry stood in front of the piano and sang along with Aussie. They were both wearing a smile on their faces.

The second verse played, and Perry was soaring over the town of Danville in his jetpack. His eyes were focused and filled with determination. The shot switched to Aussie practising boxing with Perry in a room. Perry hit the punching bag several times in a row, and Aussie did the same.

Aussie was singing into a microphone, holding his forearms near his chest and closing his eyes. He grabbed onto the stand seconds after. Perry and Aussie were holding paws and looking into one another's eyes in the next scene.

Scenes of Perry comforting a scared or pained young Aussie showed up, followed by another scene of Aussie looking relaxed and content.

The two platypuses were seen playing the piano together, Perry on the left and Aussie on the right, and then they switched places.

Cut to Perry singing into a microphone. Aussie walked up to him and started singing with the platypus, improvising the majority of his vocals. There were some shots taken from the recording process of the song.

Aussie was playing the drums, and Perry was playing the guitar in the same room. Perry played a grand solo with no error, causing Aussie to get excited and drum a little harder. The video showed them singing into microphones and walking toward each other. They were seen dancing in the dark on the grass.

The video showed Perry and Aussie swimming in the water, and everything faded out.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Raven Starbird and Aussie are VibeQuake's original characters. Heaps of thanks to this brilliant writer for letting me use these original characters of hers.**

Major Monogram always tells Perry that evil never sleeps. But that isn't quite true; in fact, if one thinks about it, it doesn't make much sense. It is inconsequential whether evil sleeps, the thing which matters is whether the evil people sleep, in which case the answer would be positive without a doubt.

Perry's nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, was the most active evil scientist in his league LOVE MUFFIN, and yet he still takes the day off occasionally, usually because of illness.

However, Perry devoted himself to not fighting evil but instead protecting the ones whom he knows, loves, and cares about, including all virtuous people and the vicious ones- when they're not doing malicious things. This is the exact reason the platypus got into the organization in the first place, and it had also pushed him forward in his training and his agent life.

For just the same cause, Perry had never asked for a single day off. The only time he was unable to go on duty is when his owners broadcasted images of him wearing a fedora. They did not realize anything, but Major Monogram found it risky, for he reckoned it could blow Perry's cover, and therefore the platypus was forced to take a day off.

Perry was, admittedly, a little concerned and worried about his boys and their friends. He had stopped feeling this way toward them for quite a long time as they did everything possible and impossible- I mean, those things which used to be thought of as impossible. But their plan for the following Tuesday brought it back, and the secret agent could feel the long-gone yet vaguely familiar sensation sneaking back to him and tingling his platypus mind.

 _C'mon, man. It's not they'd never done anything potentially dangerous before._ _You know they'll devise a perfect plan beforehand. Diving in without a second thought ain't their style._

 _But they are going to swim in the middle of the ocean, how can they possibly account for every contingency? No one knows what kind of creatures are out there in the ocean!_

 _I don't know, either. But I believe that they can and that they would be just fine. When you finished your mission and came back, they would be sitting under the shade tree in the backyard, not a scratch on their skin._

 _Are you sure?_

 _Remember what had happened in the second dimension?_

 _I had to disclose my secret identity in order to protect Phineas, and he was furious at me for hiding that from him. He said that I don't trust him and Ferb._

 _But that's not true, is it?_

 _Absolutely not. I trust them with all my heart, and if Major Monogram allows me to, I would gladly share my secret with my boys right away._

 _If so, why are you doubting them for something that has nothing do with your secret identity?_

 _I have no idea, frankly._

 _Listen up, Perry: Phineas and Ferb never really accounted for every single contingency in their projects, and they still hadn't gotten themselves hurt. You think they could plan ahead for the blasting inator ray?_

 _Hmm...no? Well, perhaps you're right. They don't have to consider every possibility to be safe enough._

 _Yes. Consider all they can consider and plan ahead accordingly, and they're going to be reasonably safe. There is no need to be 100 percent safe._

 _All right, I'll let them be, I suppose. Everything will be okay._

 _You should, man._

 _I know._

"Ferb, is Perry's eyes more unfocused than usual?"

Perry immediately shot out of his thoughts. He was so deep in thought that he crossed his eyes more than ordinary. This is one of the bizarre things about Perry, even as a platypus: he actually unfocuses his eyes more when he's thinking extremely hard, making him look mindless. Even Perry himself doesn't know why.

This quirk of his creates confusion at first among his colleagues, superiors, and trainees. They would typically assume that he's not paying attention or didn't hear what they say, while the platypus was actually thinking about the issue at hand. However, on the bright side, it helps him cover up his status in a way.

Ferb turned around and looked at their pet, who had already focused his eyeballs slightly, and as a result, he looked pretty normal. The Brit shrugged his shoulder at Phineas. "Oh well. Never mind. Oh, I know what we're gonna do today!"

Ferb played a D7(#9) chord on a red electric guitar.

Aussie the platypus was in his fedora, watching a talent show on the television when he heard his wristwatch ring. He shot off the couch and answered the call, which undoubtedly came from Major Monogram, his superior.

Before Major Monogram could say anything, though, Aussie broke into a song. "I'm ready to go~!" He danced across the living room and through the open door.

"Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!" He sang, sliding sideways and spinning. However, that made the major cringe.

"Agent A, we get that you're very ardent about your job as an agent, but you'd still have to go to your lair and receive the mission briefing. You can't just skip that part and go straight to the villain's place to foil his scheme. Besides, how could you dance and sing like that in your host family? If you were caught doing that, your cover would be blown and you'll have to be relocated. You do realize your translator is on?"

Aussie's face turned serious as he nodded his head at Monogram's last question. The platypus ran back into the house and showed his major around through the communication watch on his wrist. There was nobody else than Aussie there.

"Oh, I see. Your host family was all out. But I still have to remind you that fighting evil is something that should be taken very seriously," said Major Monogram through the wristwatch. Aussie the platypus opened up a hidden tunnel in the living room and jumped through it.

Carl chuckled behind Major Monogram's back and commented, "such an enthusiastic agent."

"You're not even one to judge, Carl," Monogram said coldly.

The briefing went fast. Aussie tossed a couple of gadgets as well as his guitar into his fedora. Then he took off with his jetpack and flew out from the open rooftop.

The secret agent arrived at his nemesis's place to find that the door wasn't even closed. He could hear Raven Starbird practicing her monologue from the outside.

"I chime in with a haven't you people ever heard of, closing the goddamn door, no?" Aussie sang through his translator as he stridden through the door.

Within just a split moment, four robotic arms stretched out and gripped Aussie the platypus by his limbs, holding him in place. Hung upside down, he struggled to get free; however, the grip was too tight. Aussie had to come up with a better method in order to escape.

"Aussie the platypus, you're captivated. And my invention's already been activated. Something in your mind, I know you couldn't fake it; when that shit goes off I'll eliminate all hatred!" Raven Starbird chanted while snapping her fingers on the beats.

Aussie couldn't help but to roll his eyes; her performance was nowhere near decent but downright lame- and stupid.

During Raven Starbird's monologue, Aussie noticed a big object composed of concentric circles on the wall which was located on the other side of the room, only a few feet away from the roaring machine. _I reckon I've seen that before, but I can't recall when and where._

Aussie thought for a few seconds and recognized the object as an enormous speaker very soon.

"Behold! Triethylstilbestrol! I will cover the entire Tri-state Area with this chemical in its gas form, and when people breathe in the chemical, it would transform them into mindless, domestic animals with an excruciatingly painful procedure. And then I, Raven Starbird, will come in and take control!" She ended her speech with a maniacal cackle.

Meanwhile, Aussie the platypus spotted a lever on a wall near himself. He pulled the guitar out of his fedora; despite his upside-down position, the agent did not allow a single gadget to fall out.

Aussie strapped his guitar onto himself and threw his fedora at the lever. The fedora hit its target, therefore turning on the speaker. A humming noise was heard, which caught the evil chemist's attention. Nevertheless, it was too late for her. Aussie strummed an Amaj9 chord on his guitar.

The sound of Aussie's electric guitar was amplified so much through the speaker that it produced a sonic impulse huge enough to move both Raven and her evil invention, making them crash together, melting the invention from the frictional heat of the impact. Not only that, but it also caused the robotic arm holding Aussie to crack. He struggled some more and broke the arms successfully.

Aussie landed gracefully on both feet. No sooner than his landing did he hear a high-pitched scream. Obviously, it came from Raven Starbird, who turned out to be the victim, the only victim to be precise, of her very own evil scheme.

After the smoke had cleared, the secret agent saw a cat walk out. She let out a yowl that told Aussie she was really pissed. _It's fair, Raven Starbird, to give you a taste of your own chemical._ Aussie the platypus smirked at the chemist as he parachuted off the building.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Aussie and members of his host family (i.e. the Kennedys), including Kane belong to VibeQuake. Definitely, go check out her stories if you haven't, I think you'll find them quite enjoyable. As for Professor Rallenten, VibeQuake and I have been discussing the details about him since we I came up with the name. You're going to see more about Rallenten in future chapters of VibeQuake's story Misperceived Monotreme Part II, so you'd want to stay tuned in to that story for sure!**

Phineas woke up to his platypus's chatter in the morning. He opened his eyes and said, "Good morning, Perry!" He petted his pet, who let out a soft purr. Phineas found his bed covered with Perry's fur. He turned his head and saw his stepbrother had gotten up as well.

"Hey Ferb, I know what we're-" the redhead stopped himself mid-sentence, "wait, we've got this planned days ago. I'm not sure if I could say that now. I mean, usually, I said that when I think of a project to launch. It feels a bit awkward now."

"Technically, you could still say that," said Ferb.

"All right, I guess I'll say it anyway. Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!" They tidied up their beds, shaking the platypus fur off onto the ground. Phineas had to get dressed with the assistance of a special kind of machine since his nose was too pointy, while Ferb collects the fur on the ground and on their bed sheets. Once they were set for the morning, they ran downstairs for breakfast. They ran so quickly that Perry didn't think he would be able to catch up with them if he wasn't a secret agent.

In his host family, Aussie awoke at around the same time as Phineas and Ferb. He walked on all fours toward the door, which magically opened once he got near. Aussie stepped out of the room and found his owner Kane, who was an O.W.C.A. agent too, on the other side of the door with a smile on his face. "Morning, Aus." The platypus was going to smile back at Kane, but he noticed that the other family members were rousing, and thus he assumed his usual mindless expression.

The family saw several bowls filled with cereals on the dining table as they walked to it. Kane had gotten the breakfast ready for everyone in the house. While the others were getting into their seats, Kane poured platypus food into Aussie's bowl.

It was only half an hour after Aussie had finished his food when he received a call. Aussie answered the beeping wristwatch promptly as he walked into the backyard and hopped into one of his hideouts.

The platypus slid through some tubes and landed in a red chair in his lair. Monogram was on the screen. "Agent A, Professor Rallenten has called in sick a minute ago. However, since he behaves unusually mysteriously, it could be a trick. So we're sending you there to check." Aussie saluted Major Monogram and took off in a jetpack.

Aussie arrived at his destination to see, from the windows, that Rallenten was lying on the bed with an ice pack upon his head. The platypus outside could hear plagued moans and rough coughs constantly coming out of the room from where he was.

 _Streuth! He was really sick,_ Aussie He showed his major that through his wristwatch, and Monogram told him that he had a day off. Aussie decided to go for a stroll. He flew back to his lair to put his jetpack away before starting his walk on all four.

As he walked down the blocks, Aussie smelled sandwiches. Not just any sandwiches, but sandwiches with sardine fillings. Aussie stopped and looked around; nevertheless, he spotted no one making or eating sandwiches nearby. He saw that he was standing right in front of the Flynn-Fletcher household. The platypus realized in an instant that it wasn't an actual smell, but rather that piece of memory, where he slid down the tunnel for the first time and fought Dr. Doofenshmirtz by accident, triggering his olfaction

 _Even though I've been through all these years, my memories still linger,_ thought Aussie, _I guess some things just never change no matter how much I've changed over time._

Not until Aussie the platypus saw a triangle-headed boy and a green-haired boy walk out from the backyard did he realized he had sighed as he was musing, which came out as a chattering sound to the kids.

Said boys stepped toward Aussie, whose eyes were crossed, and bent down to take a close look at him. The platypus was slightly uneasy at first, for although he had known Perry for years- since he got into the agency, this was actually the first time he met the boy in person; nonetheless, Aussie noticed from the redhead's eyes that they were just curious and that he looked benevolent. Consequently, Aussie's worries were swept out of his head in an instant.

"Wow, boy," said Phineas, "you sure look a lot like Perry."

 _We're doppelgangers,_ chattered Aussie, although he knew that the redhead could not understand him.

The other children gathered around the platypus after Phineas uttered the sentence, but Aussie didn't get nervous as he could tell they were all quite kind-hearted.

Aussie the platypus walked into the familiar backyard. The memory was still clear as it could be even after years. Sometimes he felt like he knew this place better than the Kennedy's backyard. However, this time he noticed a big door-like thing.

 _This must be a contraption they've built. Perry told me about them being inventors at a young age._

"Phineas, how did you hear him chatter? It wasn't very loud, and we were talking when he chattered," questioned Isabella.

"I guess having Perry as a pet that typically wanders off and then comes back home makes Ferb and I particularly sensitive to platypuses' chatters," replied the redhead while picking up the platypus, "hmm. He's as heavy as Perry, which is not commonplace for a platypus. They don't do much, after all."

Immediately, Ferb deduced in his mind that Aussie must be a secret agent, just like their pet Perry, while Aussie snickered in his head. _You don't know about us two._ _By the way, you've overlooked the muscles, obviously._

"All right, gang, let's go!" Phineas announced.

"What about this little fella?" Isabella asked, "are we going to leave him here until either we come back or he goes out by himself?"

"No, we're gonna bring him with us," answered Phineas, "he's so much like Perry."

Aussie was exuberated. I'm going on a trip with Perry's owners! This is awesome! He was screaming in his head, but he managed to maintain a mindless expression. And Ferb was pleased that they're not bringing the real Perry with them. He didn't have to worry about hiding his knowledge of his pet's secret identity for now.

"Yes, except that he has red eyes," Baljeet pointed out, only to be slapped on his left clavicle.

"Ow!" The scream was actually one more of surprise, not pain, because he was hit with less force than usual.

Buford said, "yeah, we could see that. We ain't blind, nerd."

Aussie commented quietly, _that's harsh but undeniably touché_ , as he followed the kids into the contraption, which turned out to be a transporter.

Aussie as well as the kids found themselves at Danville Harbor in a heartbeat. Aussie hid himself behind the imposing ships, far from the gang. He got into agent mode and gave Perry a call.

It just so happens that Perry had just parked his scooter by the DEI building. He picked up the call from his doppelganger friend.

"Hey, mate," a voice came through Perry's wristwatch.

"Hello, Aus. I can hear waves crashing on the haven from here, so you must be at Danville Harbor."

"You got that right. Rallenten was down with some illness, thus giving me a day off. I dropped by your home and-" Aussie prolonged the conjunction and raised the pitch to create suspension, but the platypus on the other side simply completed the sentence.

"My boys brought you with them, didn't they?"

"Wow. How did you know?"

Perry replied as he walked into the elevator, "I've been their pet for over five years. I know precisely what type of person they are. Besides, your tone and face sort of gave it away."

"Yeah, I suppose so. I'm just absolutely exhilarated because your owners took me on a trip with them. Honestly, this feels like a dream!" Albeit excited, Aussie kept his tone lowered in order to avoid being attended to.

Perry informed his doppelganger, "They're visiting Ferb's friends, which are, um, dolphins."

"Hold on, mate. Did you just say that Ferb has dolphins as his friends?" Aussie asked, not believing what he'd heard.

"Yes," confirmed Perry, "he could even speak dolphin. Queer, huh?"

After taking a moment to let the information sink in, Aussie finally answered, "not quite weird if we take into account that Phineas and Ferb could accomplish basically anything."

Perry gave an approving smile, "they may do some freediving and swimming, in which case you could follow them into the ocean and be who you are."

"I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have heaps of fun with your boys. Bye, mate!"

"Bye, Aus," said Perry. As soon as he hung up, the secret agent put on a serious expression and stepped out of the elevator. On the other hand, Aussie the platypus assumed a mindless expression and walked up to Ferb, who picked him up from the ground.

Ferb thought, _technically, it wouldn't matter if he ever finds out that I know that he's a secret agent. He's not my pet._

 _This has got be perfect_ , thought Aussie as they got onto one of the ships there.


	16. Chapter 16

Rallenten had slept for hours, and now he was feeling a little better but still weak and languid. He decided that he wasn't getting out of the bed since his body condition was anything but pleasant.

Rallenten's phone made a vibrating noise, which indicated that he had an incoming message on Vicechat, an online chatroom for L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. members. He stuck his arm out of the warm, comfy cover and reached for his phone. It could have been worse; Rallenten was fortunate he didn't need to get out of his bed. But, were that to be the case, it was rather likely that the evil professor would simply ignore the message.

It was a video from Doofenshmirtz, along with a text. _My nemesis and your nemesis sang a song together. It's goddamn awesome._

High in the sky above Danville City, the cloud magically organized themselves to form the text: I Write Sins Not Tragedies. As the camera shifted downward, there were some all-caps words on the road which read, PANIC AT THE DISCO. Each of the mailboxes had a letter written on it in blue. Together, they made up the words "Perry" and "Aussie".

Perry was standing in the middle of what seemed to be an empty room. He pulled his fedora down and covered his eyes, leaving only a tiny slit to allow him to peek.

An image began to fade in slowly with the intro comprised of string pizzicato. No sooner had Perry started to sing than the evil scientist could make out the image, revealing that Perry was actually at the entrance of a church.

Perry took a few steps forward so that he was in the church, but traced his path back and headed outside. He did that repeatedly, walking to and fro upon the red carpet on the floor, sometimes going past the seats without sitting down.

There were figures in the pews chatting, none of which was shown clearly enough to be distinguished due to the distance; moreover, their voices were mostly drowned out by the music.

Aussie and Melody, both of which were clothed formally, were seen next to each other in the pews. Melody opened her mouth and said something to the platypus, but her voice wasn't heard since Perry sang what she was saying. Perry was now standing outside the church, but not far from the door.

Aussie replied, "Yes, but...", gesticulating while singing. In the meantime, a woman with purple hair could be seen standing in the front, along with a man. The soon-to-be husband and wife have dressed up aptly for their wedding. This cover totally changed up his vision of the platypus he fights on a regular basis.

Rallenten was utterly shocked because he'd never heard his nemesis curse before. He had thought that O.W.C.A. agents wouldn't curse. He had communicated with Aussie before in some of their battles, for Aussie used his translator in order to make himself understood.

When the chorus played, Perry burst in abruptly from the unclosed door, causing Aussie and Melody to stare at him in mild surprise. They stood up and walked up to Perry a moment later, and Aussie sang the second half of the chorus while Perry was playing the guitar.

Rallenten was confounded, "where did that guitar come from?". Indeed, it did look like Perry had just pulled a guitar out of the blue.

Aussie went on to the next verse, playing a drum set which seemed to have also appeared out of nowhere at the same time. Perry took over with an "oh" as he threw his left arm into the air and snapped his fingers fairly loudly. The platypus then glanced sideways at no one in particular. He threw both arms up, tilting his body backward with a pretentious smile across his beak. Meanwhile, Aussie was clapping with a sarcastic smirk.

The two platypuses sang the second chorus together, Perry on the guitar and Aussie on the drums. Perry left the final line in the chorus to Aussie alone, who nailed the belted high notes and the drums.

Aussie had a powerful voice now like Perry, but with a bright tone, making him able to be heard quite clearly over the sounds of the drums. Even though he did an ad lib and added a few more notes which is even higher than the sustained high notes in the original song, exceeding C5 in particular, his voice was never drowned out.

It looked like the groom had heard an eerie noise, as he turned his head and stared into nowhere. He felt a pull on the lower part of his shirt and finally caught himself. The man looked down to see Perry and Aussie, and he gave a smile out of gratitude.

With his poker face on, Perry held his arm up and grabbed the groom's hand. Despite being a platypus, Perry was pretty strong and pulled the man for quite a distance. They got out of the church and went past almost the entire square.

The man spotted a familiar face in the corner but with someone which he didn't know of. Immediately, his face turned pallid. He was astonished and devastated when he saw his lover and bride kissing another man just as passionately as if she were kissing him. He couldn't watch, but neither could he go away. It was like his feet were planted to the ground. He didn't realize that Perry had let go of his hand, and his eyes were glued to the woman in a shiny emerald dress. He was in so much shock that Perry had to drag him away before he faints.

Everything started to fade into a shade of teal as Perry walked off with the groom, who was shaking uncontrollably now.

Aussie sang the chorus for a final time with his arms crossed, creating a bunch of cracks in the background. The platypus sang the first line in the chorus the second time and shattered the background. He was still in the church. Aussie spread his arms out wide and then tipped his fedora as the song came to an end. The video finished with a flash into nothingness.

Rallenten commented, "damn. Them platypuses really could sing. Especially my nemesis, he's sick at this. But honestly, I did not expect they, as secret agents working for the O.W.C.A., to swear."

It then dawned on the evil scientist that the song was now stuck in his head. Rallenten grumbled in annoyance and put his phone away. "Great, I have Aussie the platypus's voice ringing in my head over and over now."

As the ship moved across the blue waves, Aussie the platypus found a number of dolphins swimming aside their ship, all of whom he didn't recognize. They must be Ferb's friends, thought Aussie as he watched the dolphins leap out of the surface.

One of the dolphins made a whistling noise, and Ferb gave a thumbs-up followed by an analogous but varied sound. The dolphin replied with a series of whistles. Aussie realized soon that the Brit was conversing with the dolphin. Man, he is-

Unable to find a suitable word for his admiration and amazement for the Brit, Aussie was assured that they were going to have infinite fun.

After talking to the dolphin for a while. Ferb, who was already in his swimming pants only, eyed his stepbrother. Phineas took off his striped T-shirt and shorts as he said, "gang, we're good to go!" The other kids began to take off our clothes, revealing the swimsuit inside.

A green ray hit the ship when they were doing so, causing the dolphins to dive underneath for a brief moment, but none of the gang gave a heed since beams coming from nowhere hitting objects has become a common thing for them.

Aussie chattered loudly upon spotting the huge hole in the body of the ship. Hey, that weird beam wrecked our ship! All the children turned behind to see the grave damage on the vessel. The next thing they knew, the ship was tilting, just as anyone would have expected.

"Well that didn't go according to plan," said the redhead, picking up the platypus aboard, "but it's better!" Aussie could feel himself being lifted up as they all slid down the slanting deck. Ferb saw all their clothes and shoes slipped off the side. It sank as soon as it hit the ocean.

Aussie was sent flying when Phineas tossed him forward as hard as possible. The redhead jumped off with Ferb, who did some front flips during the fall, and Isabella, who screamed in excitement. Baljeet was thrown off by the bully, who fell out of the ship himself not long after due to the ship getting overly tilted. All of them fell into the water with a splash, but Buford made the biggest one.

They dove beneath the waves and got surrounded by pods of dolphins right away. Ferb swam in circles behind one of his animal friends, keeping a distance just far enough to ensure that he wouldn't get tail-slapped in the face. At the same time, Phineas was getting chased around by Isabella. Behind them was the wreckage of the ship sinking to the bottom.

Another dolphin came over to Aussie. The platypus fived the incomer's fin, and the dolphin let out a noise which Aussie assumed to mean hospitality. He held his thumb up in response, and they started to swim around each other, constantly changing direction and sometimes hitting tails together. Novel with this practice, Aussie was a bit pained the first time they did that, but soon he got used to it.

Being a platypus means that Aussie was built for swimming, but as a secret agent, he had received some lessons on advanced underwater tricks, thus being almost as adroit as the dolphins in the water.

While Baljeet was shuttling between the dolphins, Buford dove into the depth of his surroundings in solitude, taking glances at the various creatures passing by.

Isabella felt something furry grinding on her back. It has got to be that platypus, thought the girl, not being mistaken. She smiled at Aussie, who for a second or two, seemed to be smiling as well. Aussie showed her an underwater trick that he likes to do without giving a thought on whether he was acting mindlessly.

He swam through Isabella's legs from one side and then went over her shoulders from another. He circled around her right arm a couple of times before diving down a little so he was beside her waist now. Aussie repeated the whole thing four or five times.

Phineas dove some more into the sea until it became uncomfortable holding his breath. As he was getting to the surface, he felt something tapping on his shoulder. Assuming that it was only one of the dolphins passing by, he shifted to the left with a wave of the hand as he continued his rise.

The dolphin did the same thing again, just to obtain the same result. The redhead's reaction was no different from the first time- except that he was slowing down, which didn't look good since he was trying to surface. Less surfacing speed means more surfacing time, hence he might not be able to last until he reaches the surface, in which case he would drown. But it looked like Phineas wasn't alert of that.

Suddenly, Phineas felt his thighs as well as his bottom bump into a smooth and slippery substance, which turned out to be the body of the dolphin who had poked him seconds ago. Phineas was confused, but the dolphin gave him no chance to question and swam to the surface within two seconds.

Phineas breathed in fresh air once out of the surface. "Thanks for the ride, pal." The animal couldn't understand him, but he could sense that Phineas was thankful for him from his broad smile and delightful tone, and he responded with a whistle. Although he didn't really get what the dolphin was saying either, Phineas assumed that the sound meant something like "you're welcome".

Aussie saw Phineas on the animal's back. He made an attempt to climb onto the dolphin but failed and slipped into the ocean. Phineas found it funny while the dolphin started to make noises equivalent to laughter in dolphin. The boy broke into chuckles too after a short while.

They decided to go on another dive. Phineas lay flat on his stomach just before they both submerge into the water. Riding the animal, Phineas got a feeling as if he were on an underwater roller coaster- the cool one like the one he and Ferb had built, not the lame one like that coaster in the fair.

It wasn't all that similar to a coaster, though. While a roller coaster has a certain track to follow, a dolphin swimming around playfully doesn't. Phineas was carried through the blue water at great speed, winding constantly without notice. They even did a whole revolution, stunning the redhead. He thought he was going to fall off, but the movement was done so delicately that he was still on the dolphin's back after three revolutions.

The dolphin Phineas was riding went over to another dolphin who had Buford on his back. Phineas waved his hand gleefully while the two dolphins were chatting.

Aussie shot across the water. As he approached Buford and Phineas, he swung his tail, sweeping as much of a surface as he could. The tail missed Buford by barely half an inch, but it came at Phineas at such a precise angle that it was almost promised to hit him right in the cheek- except that Phineas saw it coming one second ago and dodged it by backflipping off the dolphin. The young inventor's feet came into contact with the platypus's tail as he kicked backward slightly.

He had less than a second to react, and this is what he did; imagine what he would have done if he had only a little more time in this kind of circumstance!

Aussie snapped out of his thoughts instantly when he felt someone tugging on his right foot. He saw that Buford had also gotten off his ride as well. Aussie went deeper, and Buford, as well as Phineas, followed him under. The three swam more before surfacing together. By a remarkable coincidence, the two boys and Aussie ran out of breath at the same time.

Baljeet and Isabella were swimming with a pod of dolphins. The dolphins were considerate enough to slow down their motion for their visitors since they couldn't swim as fast, plus their breath-holding time was a lot shorter, too. Baljeet had to come up for air nearly every minute, while Isabella had a one-hundred-second span under the surface at her best.

Despite her physical limits, the girl was willing to do simple tricks with the pod. As for Baljeet, the most he'd do was diving, rising, and making turns- no sharp turns, no tricks of any sort.

Although Phineas had taken part in a number of dreamlike adventures with his friends and stepbrother, it was, as a matter of fact, his first time swimming in the middle of the ocean. This made him a little uneasy at first, which was mostly why he moved across the water through kicking legs alternately. Yet after a few minutes, Phineas started to get used to his surroundings.

 _Wait, what? Phineas could swim just the way I- I mean, Perry and I do. Wow, they really can do anything._ Aussie the platypus followed the redhead, who was swimming platypus style undersea. Some dolphins pass by and greeted the two. Phineas even tried a few tricks with the dolphins. _Woah, impressive. I'm guessing that he learned that from Perry?_

Ferb emerged from below, surprising his stepbrother as he wasn't aware of him until he felt his hand on his bare back. Phineas punched him in the chest as an alternative to laughing. Ferb gripped Phineas's hands and swung him downward, sending the redhead between his legs as he split them to allow his stepbrother to pass through, while the platypus did a triple revolution.

 _There can be nothing better than getting into the ocean and do what every single platypus likes to do- with Perry's wondrous owners, Phineas and Ferb. How could I ask for more?_


	17. Chapter 17

With the lead of the dolphins, Aussie and the gang were able to get to spots no one else had been to, even though the only thing they had is the swimsuit they were wearing. That excludes Aussie, who don't wear clothes since he's a platypus. The fedora he was wearing got blown away when he was on the ship, leaving him with only his wristwatch, which was covered by his teal fur.

Baljeet and Buford were each riding a dolphin. In no time did they both found out that the dolphins were swimming faster and faster, and there was a lot of tricks involved. There were moments when the animals seemed to forget that they have fairly limited apnea intervals, and dove when they were getting out of breath, before they shot to the surface, allowing the boys to take a breath.

Baljeet immediately noticed they were trying to outpace each other; thus, he was actually enjoying the ride. On the other hand, Buford, who did not realize this, felt much more terrified. It was like that ride on the monstrous roller coaster which Phineas and Ferb had built, except he couldn't breathe nor scream here otherwise he'd have salty water gushing into his lungs.

Baljeet gave Buford an amused look while gesturing at the dolphin the bully was riding, then the one he was riding; Buford saw the sign but didn't get the meaning. The bully grabbed onto the animal's wet, slippery back with both hands, whereas Baljeet leaned forward and rest his chin on the dolphin, turning his neck slightly to watch the other animals passing from above.

Phineas spotted the sunken ship lying at the bottom and got an idea. He dove to the ship with his stepbrother and Aussie following behind. Isabella went after them, too, with some dolphins on her side.

The redhead was sort of astounded when he saw Buford and Baljeet each on a dolphin who were chasing one another around the mainmast. He managed a smile while Ferb gave a thumbs-up before they swam to the other part of the ship, performing a couple of sophisticated actions on their way.

Phineas turned back swiftly, facing Aussie, who had been following him and Ferb since they got to the ship. Then, the boy and the platypus swam at each other. Both ended up at the foremast. Phineas and Aussie sat down there, leaning against the mast; it wasn't easy though, for they had to fight against the great buoyancy in order to do that- while holding their breath.

As for Buford and Baljeet, the race between the dolphins they were riding had finally come to an end. The dolphins took them down a trench no more than a few feet, and they didn't swim as fast, which began to ease Buford's nerves. The boys were then brought to the surface. Buford breathed rapidly chiefly because he was actually scared. Sitting on the animal's back, every exhale of the bully was an exhale of relief.

Aussie kicked it up a notch by lying down on the ship deck, and Phineas imitated him shortly after. Although he had never done this before, Aussie found it quite interesting. Afterwards, they swam over the rail and went to the first deck, where they did what Aussie loves to do with Perry- some certain tricks and a good chase- with a little modification to fit Phineas.

Strangely enough, it looked like the redhead knew what to do once he saw Aussie's actions, and therefore he was able to act accordingly. A lot of his moves were different from Perry's, some being even better in Aussie's eye.

However, when they were attempting to get out of the wreck and surface, Phineas took a wrong turn without noticing until he got to a dead end. The sight of Ferb and Isabella leaving from the other side apparently slipped his eyes. He groaned inside his mind, for he had to go back to try again, and that wasted his breath.

The young inventor felt like his own body was getting heavier and heavier due to his urgent need for air. Still, he managed to pull himself out of the shipwreck. At that very moment, he thought he couldn't hold it any longer, but he kept his mouth tightly shut anyway, albeit with great endeavour.

There wasn't a single dolphin near, so Phineas had to rely on Aussie and himself. He pushed down the need for air and surfaced with Aussie's help. It still took him almost half a minute, though. Oddly, Phineas managed to last another twenty-seven second while he was quite terribly out of breath. He had hardly any oxygen left in his lungs then.

The redhead put his arms on the platypus and gasped for air. Aussie kept swimming forward to stay afloat so that Phineas could take his time to regulate his breathing. It just so happened that Aussie was swimming right above Buford at approximately the same speed, for Aussie swam rather slowly for a platypus to prevent the young inventor from slipping off.

"Thank you, boy," said Phineas between breaths, "though I don't know your name," Aussie swam a bit faster, "and I don't speak platypus, so I can't just ask you."

The platypus didn't give a response, but he was secretly pleased. He also thought it remarkable that Phineas maintained another twenty-seven second with so little air. He was able to last this long using his will.

Ferb emerged from the water but only for a brief second before he and his stepbrother made another dive. Phineas swam in the way a platypus does, while Ferb moved in the ocean as though he were a dolphin himself. He even performed some complicated tricks, which was a variant of those which dolphins tend to do at their leisure, which amazed Phineas deeply albeit he'd seen similar things from the Brit prior to this.

They reached a school of dolphins that was frolicking and joined them. Although Phineas had no means to converse with the dolphins, a member of the school taught him some more cool tricks- they didn't even need Ferb or anyone to translate the words, for body language alone was enough.

As a matter of fact, the boys and Aussie were constantly being pushed by the ocean currents. However, they never paid any attention to that since they were having so much fun with Ferb's animal pal. Therefore, they didn't notice when the current became a little stronger.


	18. Chapter 18

Everyone went out of the surface and climbed onto a dolphin. After riding for a while, the kids got off and swam alongside the animals, who went slowly so that it wouldn't be too strenuous for them. The waves grew higher, making it harder to breathe, but Phineas took it as the most natural phenomenon ever and ignored it.

A gust swept across the surface. The waves were significantly higher now. Ferb and some of the dolphins used the opportunity and jumped out of the water. With the waves pushing them up into the sky, they could stay in the air for longer and do more tricks before falling back.

Another stronger gust came, and it kept blowing and blowing. Phineas rested supine on the surface when they had stopped swimming, not kicking his legs at all. The ocean waves carried the boy up and down, pushing him a little underwater while he was dropped onto the surface.

Isabella lay down the way Phineas did beside him. The waves are too high, so she could only gasp when the wave was at its trough. On the other hand, Phineas was able to have more unrestricted breathing, for he floated better.

Phineas spotted Aussie passing by as he was pushed under again. He decided to follow the platypus off. Although Aussie swam faster, Phineas was able to keep track of him.

The two found Phineas's T-shirt and shorts on the seafloor. As soon as Phineas lifted the clothes off the sand, the T-shirt was washed clean by the current. Aussie slapped his tail, sending the sand upward and mudding the water for a short amount of time.

The boy stuck himself into the sand, leaving only his head on the seabed, while the platypus sat erect and wrapped his tail around the end of his nose. Albeit pointy, Phineas's nose is not as sharp as it looks. It actually couldn't pierce through anything, unlike what people may think.

Phineas could feel the current hitting his face, and he found it sort of enjoyable. The only pickle was that he couldn't stay there for too long, as he needed to take a breath. Phineas pulled his arms out and breaststroked out of the sand. Once he got out completely, he went back to platypus style and reached for the surface.

Phineas was just below the surface, but a dolphin was blocking his way up. The redhead climbed onto the animal, careful not to cover the blowhole. The dolphin didn't seem to mind, though, as he dove under the surface seconds later, carrying the redhead with him. Aussie swam beside them.

Phineas got off when they were nine feet under and started to play with the dolphin and the platypus. In a blink of an eye, some more dolphins headed over in all directions, one of which having Buford on its back. When Phineas turned from Buford, he grabbed the redhead by the legs and swung him to the other side without a warning. Phineas seemed to like that, as he gave a friendly hit in return.

While they were having fun, Phineas felt a tap. A tap on his shoulder. _Wait, there's only Buford, that platypus whose name I don't know, and a bunch of dolphins. Buford is facing me now, so he could not have tapped me from my back. Yet that touch is unmistakably from a human. How's it possible, then?_

Phineas was taken by surprise when his stepbrother came out of the blue. Finding it hard to believe what he just witnessed, Phineas eyed the Brit curiously, _how did you-?_ Ferb silently swam back into the school of dolphins, his silhouette disappearing into the animals. He swam forth and Phineas could see him again.

 _I guess it's just you blend into the dolphins so well I couldn't see, huh?_ As he was underwater, Phineas couldn't talk, but Ferb understood every single message the redhead was conveying, not missing any detail. Phineas, Ferb, Buford, and Aussie swam away from the dolphins, with Ferb and Aussie taking the lead.

A moment later, the boys and the platypus came out of the surface to see Baljeet riding a dolphin. The dolphin would leap out of the water once in a while. Beside Baljeet was Isabella, who was swimming at the surface.

Phineas approached her from behind. Although he wasn't really giving it his best, he was fast enough to catch up with Isabella. They smiled at each other as they kept swimming. As a matter of fact, they had to practically throw themselves into the air in order to breathe, owing to the high, strong ocean waves.

 _Now I know why Ferb shot upright above the surface that much when he was swimming with those dolphins last time. It wasn't only for show,_ thought the redhead. Gradually, Isabella became exhausted, so they stopped. All the kids came together, each sitting on a dolphin, while Aussie dove into the waves that had heightened even more. The wind swept past their bodies, giving the kids a bit of a chill, but not too bothering.

"So, how are you and Phineas doing?" inquired Dan while swimming with Ferb on him.

"Nothing's changed much since the last time we met. We come up with a great plan, Phineas says he knows what to do to me, we grab the tools and the blueprint, and we start to build our invention. It would be half an hour or so before Isa-" Ferb caught himself mid-speech-"hold on, I haven't introduced my friends to you all yet. Sorry, my fault."

"It's fine. Don't stress on this," said Dan.

"Thanks, man. I suppose I'll do it now." Ferb harrumphed in dolphin to make sure he had all his animal friends' attention. "My dear mates, I would like to introduce my human friends to you."

Phineas said to himself loudly, "even though I couldn't comprehend a word he says, Ferb sure talks a lot in dolphin."

Ferb said, "I'm gonna begin with Isabella. She's right here beside Phineas," the Brit gestured to Isabella. The dolphins greeted the girl. "She has a major crush on Phin, but he had absolutely no idea."

"It sounds like Phineas is really clueless," said Marsh, who was carrying Phineas.

"He sure is, Marsh," Ferb replied before moving onto the other two, "that boy with a dark skin tone is Baljeet, who's of Indian descendant. He's pretty intelligent and knowledgeable as well as diligent, and he always gets straight A's in class, even though he's skipped grades.

However, he's not very athletic, so he's often teased and pranked by Buford- hopefully, you get who he is, just the last one left. He's a bully, but he usually only picks on Baljeet, who he refers to as his nerd. If Baljeet's not present, Phineas, who he calls "Dinnerbell", would become his second target.

He would bully anyone who hurt his self-esteem as well just as a payback if they're physically weaker than him. As for those stronger than Buford- as he sees it, he'd invite them to a fight, in which case it didn't matter that much if he wins. He'll never cause serious injury on anybody, though."

Luke the dolphin took Baljeet under the surface unexpectedly, giving the boy only enough time to take a huge breath. Just before they submerged, Ferb reminded Luke to take it easy on Baljeet, as the kids went after Baljeet on the dolphins.

Marsh arched his back and caused Phineas to slide off from his tail, while Luke passed around the other dolphins carrying the kids and crept behind Buford. The Indian boy had no clue about what the dolphin was doing.

Luke poked the right side of Buford's back with his rostrum abruptly, pushing him off of the dolphin on which he had been riding. Caught off guard, Buford tumbled over in the water and fell onto Phineas, who only happened to swim by; because of the extra weight from the bully, Phineas sank a little more- partly because Buford on his back also restricted his movements, so he could not swim sufficiently effectively to prevent himself and Buford from sinking.

Luke and Baljeet found that utterly amusing. The dolphin even let out some noise- essentially a bunch of chuckles in dolphin. Both the redhead and the bully rolled their eyes. Buford kicked his legs in order to go away, and yet he accidentally kicked Phineas in the waist instead. Phineas winced as he suppressed the urge to open his mouth and gasp in pain. The redhead tilted and made Buford slide off.

As he righted himself, Buford looked at Phineas apologetically, who responded with that usual optimistic smile on, as if nothing had happened, even though he was just pushed into the depths of the ocean as well as kicked in the waistline. Buford followed Phineas as the redhead swam off.

Soon they met Ferb, Marsh, Dan, and Aussie. Upon seeing them, Phineas did a backflip out of delight. However, in the eyes of Buford, it looked like he was doing that to show Ferb he wasn't hurt, which made him feel even guiltier for kicking him, even though they both knew it was only a mistake.

Phineas ran his fingers upon the dolphins' slippery head. After a little while, the kids broke out of the surface, followed by Aussie the platypus and Dan the dolphin.

Dan rose above the surface with Aussie sitting on his back. Buford and Phineas climbed onto the dolphin, lying down beside Aussie, while the Brit stayed in the water, resting his head on Dan's rostrum. He put his hands around the animal's head and whispered into his ears. Dan's eyes were filled with contentment as he listened to his human friend.

Dan said in his native tongue, "that really hit home, boy. I feel just the same. You're such an extraordinary friend of mine. Thank you." Both let a smile creep onto their faces as they stared at each other, knowing that even with the great differences between them- their species, the environments they live in, their lifestyles, etc., at the end of the day, there would be a part inside of them persistently identical.

The Brit sank himself beneath the waves, holding his breath, and allowed Dan to peck him on the cheek. Ferb went underneath the dolphin and hid underwater. When Dan began to move, Ferb swam along and remained unseen.

Phineas said as he stroke Aussie's watertight fur, flicking off the droplets on it, "man, it's hard to believe that there's someone who appears the same as Perry. I sometimes forget he's actually not Perry in the times when I'm with him."

"He has red eyes, you know," Buford pointed out, but that fact was obvious to Phineas.

Aussie leaped onto Buford's abdomen, making the boy nearly lose his balance. The platypus chattered, whereas Phineas smiled at his friend, thinking, this little guy seems so fitting for Buford.

Yet Buford took it as an offense, saying, "it ain't funny that he almost made me fall off, Phineas." He reached out and pushed the redhead on the side; nevertheless, not only did Phineas regained his balance under a second, but he also rolled to just in front of the blowhole without falling into the ocean, frustrating the bully a lot. Aussie ran a couple of steps and leaped onto Phineas. Using his triangular head as a platform, the platypus jumped into the water, but the redhead was hardly affected by that.

Phineas stretched his arms over his head, his body forming an X-shaped figure. All of a sudden, a pair of hands stuck out from underneath, grabbing his hands and dragging him down. Phineas made an astounded expression as his entire body disappeared into the vast blueness. Buford laughed, only to find the dolphin pushing his body above the surface, thus causing the bully to slip.

Just as Buford thought he was going to fell into the water, Dan flicked his tail and stopped him from falling. Buford started to slide back to the middle; however, once he reached there, Dan instantly turned over, tossing the boy into the ocean, creating a huge splash. The foams blocked his vision, so he didn't see Phineas and Ferb moving him upside down.

After merely seconds, Baljeet came over alongside Aussie and Luke. While the platypus wrapped himself around Ferb's shoulder, Luke pulled the redhead into a hug. Phineas rested his head in the dolphin's belly, putting a hand on the pectoral fin.

"You're wired to get along with humans in short amounts of time, Luke, aren't you?" Despite being underwater, Ferb was able to speak as clearly as on land.

Ferb seized Aussie's chest and felt muscles. It didn't surprise him, though. The Brit swam with the dolphin, gesturing at Aussie.

 _No one tells a platypus to do that unless..._ thought Aussie, looking nervous, _does Ferb know my secret?_

The boy's eyes did not just answer it all, but it also delivered a message, _there's no need to worry. I'm technically allowed to know your secret without you getting into any trouble. Promise I won't spill._

 _Thank you._ Aussie held his paw up and did what he had been told. He stood on one hand on Ferb's shoulder as Ferb swam. He then swung his tail and fived Phineas's feet. They went down, Luke's tail sticking out from between the redhead's thighs. Phineas kicked his legs while the dolphin flapped its tail.

Baljeet surfaced, paddling to keep his head above the surface so that he could take in as much air as he needed. However, someone gripped him by the legs and pulled him under before he could fill his lungs completely with air.

The bully stared at him threateningly, saying "how daring of you to get that dolphin to knock me off. You're gonna pay, especially considering you're my nerd." With that, he flipped the nerd onto his shoulder and carried him a few feet deeper, before pushing him off rather rudely.

Baljeet attempted to swim away, and yet he wasn't fast enough. Buford caught up with him and sat down on his back.

Unable to bear the weight, Baljeet kicked his legs and flapped his arms, vainly trying to stop himself from sinking, but it turned out that the more he tried, the more he sank. In fact, he could feel the bully pushing him toward the sand below.

Baljeet was lying at the bottom of the sea with someone twice his weight on him. He had no way to get free. He felt even more uncomfortable since he was held to the sand. He prayed that it wouldn't take too long before the bully release him.

He struggled, but the more he did, the harder Buford's push became. Before he knew it, Buford grabbed his wrist and dragged him behind as he swam at the bottom. Baljeet thought this was an opportunity for him to escape, but it turned out to be a false hope. Buford's grip was still too strong.

 _What are you doing to me? You know you're gonna kill me if you keep me stuck under here!_ Baljeet screamed at Buford with his eyes. Buford let go of him, but before he could even move his legs an inch, he grabbed his arm and turned him upside down. Still holding onto his hands, Buford dropped his body weight on the boy.

This time they did not sink- more, because it wasn't possible. They were already on the seafloor. Baljeet was forced to lie supine on the sandy seabed, while Buford lay prone on his stomach, watching the various creatures.

A young octopus swam over to them and spit ink in their faces. In the temporary darkness, Baljeet thought he heard the octopus laughing at them both. Buford and Baljeet couldn't see each other even when their bodies were in contact. The ink blinded them completely for quite a while.

Baljeet felt something sticky, really sticky, on his chest. It stretched from his left all the way to his right and went under his back, upheaving his back and making him sit up at a forty-five degrees angle.

 _It must be the octopus wrapping his arm around me. Though I wonder why he'd do that right after spitting ink in my face,_ Baljeet thought, _if that was a joke on us, it should have gone away._

The octopus tightened his grip and swiftly pulled the boy out. It then wrapped another arm around his chest as it took him away from the bully. It was too late when Buford realized that Baljeet wasn't there.

Buford swam out of the blackened water and spotted the octopus and Baljeet. Irritated, he sped toward them, but the animal went faster and faster until Buford couldn't catch up with them- by just a few inches, which is some sort of a tease at Buford.

Baljeet was struggling to keep his mouth shut now that he had almost reached his limit, but he didn't even try to get free, for he knew he couldn't fight the octopus's suckers. No one has ever done that before. If anyone could, it's absolutely not him. Now his life is depending on the octopusand he didn't even want to compute the probability of him being saved or the octopus taking him to the surface.

Surprisingly thankfully, the octopus recognized that he could not breathe underwater and decided to bring him to the surface so he could breathe. The boy was lifted into the sky, finally able to see the sun.

The octopus pulled one of his arms off of Baljeet. Baljeet had thought it wouldn't be possible that an octopus's suckers be removed from his body without his skin and flesh getting ripped off; however, the animal proved him wrong like it was a piece of cake.

Relieved, Baljeet allowed the young animal to wrap its arms around all his limbs. He was looking down at the ocean surface, his arms and legs spread out like wings. It was a crazy feeling for the boy. He smiled at the octopus. _I like it._

He was lowered into the ocean after a while. Phineas happened to go by when Baljeet reached the surface. The octopus freed his four limbs simultaneously, applying a force to make him do a double spin underwater and bump into the redhead, who winked playfully.

At that exact moment, Phineas tangled Baljeet's arms with his feet and hung upside down in the water. Then, by simply doing sit-ups, he was able to move whilst carrying Baljeet with his legs. In order to steer, he raised his torso in different orientations.

Baljeet cognized he didn't need to move a finger to go, but he still kicked his legs in the style of breaststroke. They went in arbitrary directions, reaching the deepest end after approximately a hundred seconds.

Phineas dug a hole in the sand and stepped in, followed by Baljeet. The current filled the hole with sand and covered their bodies in no time, leaving only their heads above the sand, their hair swaying underwater. Phineas held Baljeet's hands.

Luke swam toward the boys. Phineas, oblivious to what had happened to Baljeet, cracked a smile at the dolphin. In contrary, Baljeet was wearing a sulky face. _You almost got me killed, Luke._ Baljeet eyed the dolphin as he and Phineas surfaced with Luke. _I would have been drowned by Buford had it not been for somebody else saving my life._ Luke looked guiltily at the boy riding on his back. Phineas only poked his head out for a split second before diving again.

Phineas spotted Isabella swimming behind Aussie after only a couple of seconds. As he came over, Isabella and Aussie stopped. Isabella held her arms out forth, and Phineas did the same, grabbing her by both hands. Together, they spun like a Ferris wheel across the blue.

Aussie popped up from below, making the boy and the girl let go of each other. Phineas and Isabella swam side by side, but Isabella was only kicking. Aussie was about to go toward Buford, who was treading at the surface; however, he changed his mind when Phineas and the girl dove down, taking a sharp turn and following the two.

Aussie swam out from between Isabella's thighs. Isabella looked down, but her lips accidentally came into contact with Aussie's back, as the platypus was swimming perhaps a bit too fast. Phineas held back a laugh and did a double backflip when he saw this. However, the boy ended up falling backward into Aussie's shoulders, which earned him a smirk from Isabella.

Phineas grabbed Aussie's paws and crossed his legs over Aussie's. The boy and the platypus moved their bodies in unison, thus enabling them to move together. Moreover, even though their bodies were bound together, their movement didn't seem any restrained. The way they went left and right, to and fro, up and down, or even upside down, all of them looked perfectly natural as if they were one.

Phineas and Aussie accelerated suddenly, and Isabella wasn't able to keep up anymore. She started to lag behind; she gave up trying to catch up after some failed attempts and kept an eye on where they were heading instead.

Aussie flapped his tail, bringing himself as well as Phineas into the sand head first. They stuck themselves into the seafloor, leaving only the platypus tail and the boy's legs visible. Both had their eyes shut as their faces were in the sand.

Isabella mistook the legs and the tail as seaweed and animal living at the bottom, causing her to go past Phineas and Aussie without knowing. _Where have they gone?_ She thought, _how did they disappear so fast?_

Phineas poked his head out. The water washed the sand off his face almost instantly. Opening his eyes, he and Aussie swam closely behind the girl, and yet Isabella didn't notice them until they were in close proximity. Phineas grabbed her foot and took her by surprise.

Isabella turned around to see Phineas and Aussie swimming with their hands entangled, facing each other. The boy and the platypus stretched their legs out in a sitting position, Phineas's feet touching Aussie's. They turned ninety degrees clockwise, making Phineas on the top and facing down, while Aussie was looking up under the boy.

As soon as the two unwrapped their hands, they shot apart in opposite directions. Aussie swam toward the boy, who grabbed his webbed feet at just the right time. Aussie bent his knees to support Phineas's weight as he swung onto the platypus, but he leaned back since Phineas was getting too close. He didn't mind if Phineas would hurt himself, but he was definitely concerned about himself possibly hurting Phineas.

Phineas swam a little above Aussie. They circled around Isabella, going faster and faster before the three surfaced at a high speed. Isabella burst out of the water, gasping with the platypus keeping her afloat with his body, while Phineas backstroked nearby, looking at the clouds well above the surface.

From the side of his eyes, the redhead saw that Baljeet was doing the same as himself except that he was lying on a dolphin's back. He couldn't tell which one it is, though; he wasn't able to see clearly in this position, plus he couldn't tell the difference between those dolphins anyway.

Phineas only took a glimpse before swimming away. A few seconds later, the dolphin was poked by another dolphin who went by underwater, causing Baljeet to fell off. Once Baljeet sank beneath the waves, he knew it was Buford; however, he was too short of breath to care more.

The dolphin rose to the surface with Buford on his back. Buford smirked at the animal as he shifted to the tail, and the dolphin swam a bit closer to Phineas. The bully then signaled the dolphin with his eyes, who flapped his tail with extra power and catapulted Buford into the sky.

The redhead spotted a familiar figure falling from the sky. _Buford? Why is he up-_ He interrupted his own thoughts when he saw the bully coming at him. Phineas swam faster to get away from the falling boy, but he ended up swimming at the perfect speed... for Buford to land on him.

Phineas was pushed for a great distance below the surface with the great impulse as Buford fell into his chest, hitting the redhead's body with his bottom.


	19. Chapter 19

Phineas and Buford couldn't help but tumble over and over while they sank into the ocean- until Phineas started to swim, regardless of the boy on him. It was extra tiring for him, but Phineas had a plan devised.

Phineas couldn't see a thing. Buford's body blocked his vision. Nevertheless, he didn't stop or even slow down.

Phineas swiftly bent his knees and grappled Buford's legs, swinging the boy to the bottom. He let him go, but before Buford was able to do anything, he turned over and wrapped his hand around his neck. Phineas's body floated over Buford as he went into the depths, his body moving with more intensity in order to drag the bully along.

Buford struggled, but the redhead tightened his grab, keeping him in place. Even though he was already holding his breath, the tightness made Buford feel like he was going out of breath and thus weakened his struggles, disabling him to escape. Albeit that feeling was actually pseudo; it was gone as soon as Phineas loosened the grip. But still, it was an advantage that Phineas could exploit.

Buford gave up struggling after a few tries and allowed Phineas to take him wherever he wanted- as long as he wasn't going to drown. He trusted the redhead on that, and in no time did they reach the floor. Phineas pushed Buford into the seafloor but left the hands and the face free of sand.

Phineas smirked while holding Buford's hands down. Buford wanted to get free, and yet he couldn't; for some reason, he felt, bizarrely, strengthless. And it wasn't because he was out of breath, for he wasn't yet. _It must be a trick that Phineas knew of. How come he could keep me stuck by only grabbing my hands?_

Finally, the redhead took his hands off. Swimming out of the sand with his arms only, Buford jumped onto the young inventor; however, Phineas dodged him, swimming out of the way. _Hey, come back here! All right, I'm gonna get you good._

Buford went after him, but anyone could see that he was falling behind. He tried once or twice to grab Phineas by the feet, but he failed in doing so. Therefore, he got overjoyed when he saw Phineas turning around and coming right at him, not realizing his true intentions.

Phineas dove between his legs, catching him off guard. Acting fast, Buford closed his legs, hoping to seize the redhead but ended up getting tossed aside. Buford tumbled in the water, which made it hard for him to hold his breath a couple of times.

During that time, Buford made some attempts to right himself, but they were either ineffectual or hindered by Phineas, who applied a force to cancel out his attempts.

Phineas got onto the bully's back and pushed him down with both hands, his feet clutching the waist. Buford kicked his legs to stop sinking, and he soon realized he could swim pretty comfortably with Phineas on him. _He isn't pushing that hard after all. Maybe if I..._

Buford kicked his legs faster while shaking in random directions, hoping that he could make Phineas fall off. He was disappointed to find that Phineas's clutch was impossible to break free from.

Just as Buford really felt the need for air, Phineas got off, seeming to understand that even though he couldn't see Buford's face. Moreover, he grabbed his hand and pulled him to the surface. As they were just two feet underwater, Phineas saw Baljeet on Luke the dolphin, accompanied by Marsh. He released Buford's hands and got over to them. Buford had to swim the last two feet himself.

Baljeet held his hand up as a friendly act toward the redhead, but Marsh pulled him into a big hug before Phineas could respond. Marsh began to chase his own tail, and Phineas went here and there, crossing over the dolphin multiple times before diving under the tail.

Marsh did the same when Phineas came out from beneath his beak. Phineas did that again but wound upward immediately after with the dolphin circling around him.

Phineas floated in the water, paddling so he wouldn't get knocked under by the waves, while Marsh went back to Baljeet and Luke.

Baljeet was swimming on his own now. Accompanied by Luke, he explored his surroundings, although he didn't go nearly half as deep as others for fear of drowning. He had to be sure that he could get to the surface before he was all out of breath.

Watching the boy, Luke found him highly conservative. _He isn't the type to take chances, is he? He could have gone further, apparently, but he didn't. If only I have a way to get him to... wait, I've got an idea._

He called out to Marsh, who turned back from a mile away, heading straight for Luke. Not expecting the sudden U-turn, Phineas got thrown off the dolphin's back and fell into the water by accident; luckily, when he landed in the water, his fingers hit the tail, not the tip, but a few inches from the tip instead.

He clung to the flapping tail underwater, almost unable to contain himself from the excitement and the velocity. Yet he had to, otherwise, nature would give him a mouthful of salty water, possibly with creatures that most people couldn't even name.

When they got to Marsh within half a minute, Marsh threw his tail up, sending Phineas into the sky. The redhead cartwheeled before falling onto Luke, bouncing Baljeet into the water, while he himself rolled in as well. They emerged simultaneously, though it was simply a coincidence; they didn't see each other during the brief time underwater.

"Oops. Sorry, Jeet."

Luke started to tell Marsh his intentions. "He's really reserved the way I see it. I have a plan, but I need you to assist me in carrying it out."

After considering that for a moment, Marsh gave a positive answer before listening to the other dolphin explaining the plan.

"Okay, I've got it."

"Alrighty then. Let's go."

They watched Baljeet submerge; Marsh followed behind, while Luke outpaced the boy, taking the lead. The dolphins were actually going not any faster than when they were sleeping in order to adapt to the boy's speed.


	20. Chapter 20

Luke looked eagerly at Baljeet, who had only been underwater for eighty seconds.

Aussie went by, spinning all around in front of his eyes before going away. The boy and the dolphin saw Buford not too far off, and they swam down to him.

Frankly, Baljeet was sort of nervous about what Buford's going to do; yet it wouldn't be a difference in what Buford would do, whether he had gone down there. The bully would go to him and do the same thing anyway; besides, now that Luke was by his side, he'd be relatively safe under this dolphin's shield.

Buford hit Baljeet on the back. It sort of hurt him, but Baljeet knew he meant no harm. It was an act of hostility, not bullying. They made a body pyramid, Baljeet standing on top of Luke and Buford.

Ferb, at that time, was playing catch with Dan, Aussie, and Marsh; they used a big, rounded rock as the ball.

Aussie threw the rock at Dan, who curled his tail and trapped it between the tail and the body. Dan swung his tail backwards, and the ball went flying back at Aussie. The platypus swam forth and got the ball stuck under his chin.

He noticed that Ferb was turning away from him, so he tossed it at him; however, Ferb did a backflip and hit the ball with his nose, sending it toward Dan. Dan moved his fins together and threw the ball downward. It went so low that no one would think it possible to catch it, but Marsh managed to accomplish the task with his tail.

As the game is heating up, due to some complications, the rock went in Buford's direction and beat a good deal of air out of his mouth. Buford tossed the ball at Ferb and scrambled to the surface.

Aussie was waiting for the ball from Marsh to reach him when Buford showed up and caught it halfway. Ferb caught the ball and threw it accurately at Aussie while swimming over to Buford. He narrowed his eyes at Dan, blaming the previous incident on the dolphin.

Even though he wasn't looking, Ferb could sense the ball going through his legs, and he stopped it with his legs. "Nice try, my friend," Ferb said to Dan, who tried to take advantage behind his back.

It went on until Dan tricked Buford into thinking that the rock was coming from the bottom, but in reality, it flew over his left shoulder, causing Buford to miss.

Ferb surfaced with Aussie wrapping himself around his neck. The Brit was petting the platypus when Buford grabbed his right shoulder from behind. Aussie immediately hopped off, and Ferb followed him, making Buford slip off.

Ferb swam on his side beside Aussie, and Buford patrolled near them. A school of tuna passed by, one of which slapped Buford right in the cheek. This amused Ferb and made him crack a smile at the bully. Buford glared at him as the fish got away.

They messed around underwater, taking turns riding each other, then going to the wrecked ship. They found Buford's T-shirt swaying from the edge, and Buford grabbed it. Ferb did a front flip on the deck at the same time, stopping right in front of the bully, who was holding his T-shirt.

Buford and Ferb had a short session of arm wrestle which Buford won, before swimming out of the ship and surfacing. They saw Phineas carrying Aussie the platypus on his back and treading comfortably.

Phineas and the platypus went under the surface. Phineas swung his arms back and forth, while Aussie kept changing directions, going past Phineas's neck when he did a backflip.

They swam down to find a guitar hidden in the sand. Phineas picked the instrument up and plucked the strings with his fingers. It was in great shape, even though it had been lying in the ocean for heaven-knows-how-long. None of the strings seemed to be out of tune.

Smiling at the platypus, Phineas began to play a solo on the guitar, which was actually an improvisation over the chord progression Am-F-C-E7. The playing lasted as long as the boy's diving duration- nearly as long to be precise.

From Dan's back, Isabella saw the redhead not far away from her, his head hovering over the waves. What intrigued her was the fact that he was only using his right arm. His left arm couldn't be seen, thus making the motion look awkward in some way.

Phineas saw the girl and swam over to here, still not moving his left arm. It wasn't until Phineas was at Dan's side that Isabella realized the reason; Phineas lifted a blue guitar above his head, causing himself to go a short distance down. Only his red hair was above the surface as he showed the girl the guitar.

Not knowing what this is all about, Isabella took the guitar from Phineas's hands, while the redhead pulled himself up against the dolphin with his hands, facing the girl. The majority of his body was immersed in the water.

"So, is there anything special about this guitar, which you have apparently just found?"

"I was at perhaps forty feet below with Aussie when I found this guitar. What's strange is that even though I'm sure it's been there for quite a long time, none of the strings was broken, and the fretboard looked perfect, too."

"Wow, that's definitely not something I would expect to find in the ocean. The guitar strings were soaked in the salty ocean water and struck persistently by the current, and yet all six strings are still great," remarked Isabella, strumming an Em casually on the instrument. "I'm surprised that it sounds so great."

"I know, right? I was messing with the guitar just a moment ago, playing random stuff on it. And man, it feels awesome."

Phineas said, "Ferb recently wrote a song, saying it's about Perry, and I think it's fabulous."

"Hmm, I didn't know that. Maybe you could play me the song."

"Sure thing. This song is called 'Nonverbal'."

Phineas took the guitar from Isabella, played a brief intro, and started singing. Isabella found it cute that he would shut his eyes on occasional notes, especially the higher ones. Furthermore, even though the redhead had told her in advance that the song is about Perry and written by Ferb, the lyrics constantly reminded her of herself and Phineas- or rather, what they could have been.

Phineas played a solo before the second chorus, which was made up on the spot, making the girl think, _I like that._ When Phineas sang the last chorus, Isabella was honestly kind of surprised. She didn't expect him to sing that high.

Isabella loved the way he reached the high notes and the way his eyes widened as he did so. This is the first time she had ever heard the boy sing in head voice. He had a tendency of resorting to rock-style shouts when singing high notes that are relatively hard to sing for him.

Phineas ended the song with an expressive ad lib over the ending chord. "Oh, Phineas, I love that song," the girl commented dreamily. However, the boy didn't get her obvious clue, reminding her of the lyrics. It felt so ironic to her.

All of a sudden, a tail came out of the water and wrapped around the redhead's forearm. Phineas assumed it was one of Ferb's ocean buddies, but Isabella saw a critical sign on the tail that revealed it was not a dolphin tail. It was, in fact, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Still, it was too late to warn the boy about the potential danger. Phineas went down the surface before her mouth could form the words. She was going to follow the redhead and the mysterious creature, but she realized she wouldn't be able to compete with any ocean creature. She had to inform Ferb and the dolphins.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: I actually assumed that everyone in Danville could hold their breath for at least two minutes. That's why** **Baljeet diving for eighty seconds was considered too short- not because Luke, as a dolphin, didn't know that he's a human and couldn't stay underwater for too long.**

When Aussie heard the redhead singing, he thought, _wow, Phineas really gave that song some extra flavor with his voice and those little jazzy chords he threw in._ _Man, I love the guitar solo and the way he belted that B4 note._ In fact, the platypus was so absorbed in the boy's singing that he almost choked on the water when Buford pulled his tail. And he had never done that since birth.

Aussie turned around with astounding swiftness and glared at Buford. He headed straight down, and Buford chased after him, trying to grab his leg. However, Aussie was too fast, so Buford grabbed the spur on his heel instead. In an instant, the boy felt the pain. It hurts like-

 _It didn't really hurt. What the heck_ , thought Buford. _I thought that was going to bring me more pain._ Luckily, it's not platypus mating season, so the spur wasn't venomous at all. It just pricked a little, not even giving Buford any obvious scar.

Aussie and Baljeet met each other, and Baljeet tickled Aussie's feet in the water, making him reflexively kick his legs. Aussie's knees bumped into Baljeet's thigh as a result, and the boy tumbled onto the platypus. Resisting the urge to laugh, Baljeet followed Aussie to the surface and let out giggles above the water in between his breaths.

They went back into the water to see five dolphins who closed in and surrounded specifically the platypus. Aussie swam up to get away, but one of the dolphins blocked him and he had to go diagonally down and get stopped by another dolphin with his fin. Aussie went the other way, but he stopped when he saw yet another dolphin blocking him.

He looked around; there were three ways out. He stared at one escape, tricking the dolphins into believing he was going to take that path, but then he turned and went in the opposite direction. The dolphins there hastily blocked that exit, but Aussie changed his path again before that.

Aussie swam pass the third way out deliberately and shot through the fourth exit that opened when the dolphin tried to stop him. Aussie blew out air bubbles, _I'm out now, see you all later!_ He proceeded to tap Baljeet with his tail, getting his attention before leading him to the bottom, where they found a beautiful, striped octopus.

The octopus was lying on a rock. She glanced at them lazily, knowing they were only passersby and had no malicious intent. Besides, there was no way they could harm her. The platypus and the boy got close to have a better look of the marvelous creature.

Aussie sensed something near the rock. He dug into the sand out of curiosity and pulled out a medium-sized worm. He swung the worm all around with his bill and let it slip into the back of his bill, where it was stored in a pouch. Utterly surprised, Baljeet lost his balance underwater and almost hit the rock.

The octopus held some of her arms out to stop Baljeet. She glared at him, mildly annoyed as they both attempted to separate, while Baljeet gave her a guilty look. However, the boy's legs were entangled with the octopus arms, and they consider it impossible to pull apart without causing major injury for Baljeet.

To make matters worse, Baljeet was starting to experience problems holding his breath. He couldn't stay under for much longer. Fortunately, though, the octopus was intelligent and observant enough to notice that. Using what little strength he still had, Baljeet moved his limbs and got out of the surface with the assistance of the platypus and the octopus, who lifted him a bit higher so he could gasp for air.

The octopus swung the boy back and forth in the air, wondering why she couldn't detach her suckers like she used to do. To avoid shocking Baljeet, she went light at first and then gradually increased the force. Eventually, she shook him up and down violently, dipping him into the water chest-deep.

Buford, in the meantime, was surfing the waves with Marsh, heading straight into the waves when it came at them. Buford was able to ride the smaller ones, but when the larger ones crashed onto his body, he got pushed under. As he was surfing without a surfboard, a lot of waves seemed more intimidating than usual.

Marsh dove and rose regularly, sophisticatedly avoiding all the wave. A large wave came, but instead of diving underwater to get away from the wave, he swam towards the wave and went through it. The dolphin would also go perpendicular to the waves and let them hit his body.

Buford hopped onto Marsh, who took him on a crazy journey. The dolphin kept alternating between diving and rising at an extraordinarily fast pace.

Marsh saw a wave coming. He examined the wave; its size was perfect. Marsh tilted his body and made Buford slip to the end of his tail. Diving headfirst into the water, he got into a vertical position and stuck his tail out- with Buford on top.

He curled his tail to the back, which made the boy nearly fell off. Buford managed to get a grip onto the tip of his tail, but since he had been leading an aquatic life, Marsh's tail was considerably wet and slippery. This made holding on hard for Buford.

Just as Buford was going to fell off, the dolphin threw his tail forward forcefully and catapulted the boy into the sky. The wind blew through his body and his hair while he flew across the blue. When he began to fall, Buford looked down and saw numerous waves coming and going below.

"Ahh!" Buford made a long scream as he fell right onto a high wave. The wave supported his weight and brought him across a distance; it was only moderately fast, but the fact that he was riding on the waves without a surfboard was exciting and terrifying enough for the boy.

Furthermore, another wave interfered with that wave and pushed Buford even higher. Buford felt like he could touch the clouds now. However, in no time did he started his descent- only for short, though. He was raised even higher again, and he was also pushed forward at a higher speed, due to the increased wave speed.

Without a sign beforehand, the waves fell dramatically, taking the boy with it. Buford could almost hear his own heart beating as he got brought to the surface. He was pushed a long way underwater by the strong wave.

The wave continually went up and down but never got to the surface, and Buford couldn't escape from it. He tried to swim away, but he found that he couldn't get out and that he was momentarily trapped underwater. He had to hold his breath and wait until the wave had weakened enough for him to swim out. And it took a very long time, so long that Buford had to force himself to prolong his breath holding time.

Buford struggled to the surface, poked his head out, and opened his mouth to gasp- only to be pushed underwater again before he could breathe in one-third the amount of air he needed. As a result, the second dive was extra tough, and Buford simply allowed the waves to take him downwards before he paddled out of the surface, not wanting to waste his strength and oxygen.

Buford exploited every opportunity to go up and take a breath, however little they were. This allowed him to restore his strength and energy after a couple of minutes. He went for another dive as he felt significantly better, roaming the open water.

He was originally surprised to see Baljeet riding an octopus, but soon he realized they were actually stuck together. He approached them and pulled on the arms, but all he was capable of is making Baljeet scream out in pain and swallow some water.

Baljeet instinctively struggled to cough the water in his throat out, but that only caused more water to get into his mouth. He thrashed with the suckers still attached to his legs. Just at that time, one of the octopus legs was off from his right leg as he flailed his arms and legs, making a bit of a turbulence around himself and the animal.

While Baljeet was too panicked to care, the octopus pulled his legs off, theorizing that to be a result of Baljeet relaxing his body. _His muscles were a bit tenser before, so perhaps him swallowing in those water distracted him in a way and made him relax. I'm not sure why, but I think when his muscles were tensed up, it kind of fits with my suckers too well, which may be the reason I can't detach earlier._

She wrapped a leg around Baljeet and lifted him out of the water, not forgetting to give Buford a couple of good slaps before she went up. Buford rubbed his face in pain and swam away. Baljeet coughed violently and spit out the water he had swallowed.

The boy felt incredibly fortunate and thankful for how these events wound up, despite the fact that the essence of them was not so pleasant. He was helped and saved by an octopus whom he had never met. The octopus definitely didn't know him before either, but she was really caring and gentle toward him, trying her best to keep him from feeling uncomfortable.

Aussie nudged his body against Baljeet, glad that he was feeling all right. "Yeah, I am all good now. Thank you." Baljeet pulled the platypus into a hug and both submerged underwater. They encountered Ferb on his ascend and followed him to the top, while Dan paced underwater.

Ferb opened his mouth and took in the air he needed before the waves submerged him within seconds. He emerged again and breathed some more, repeating the act several times until his lungs got filled with air. Baljeet did the same as soon as the octopus had left. He felt his muscles loosen up gradually, and he also discovered that this method helps to slow down his heartbeat to normal.

Baljeet's body has become surprisingly flexible, which made it possible for him to do tricks under Ferb's lead. Never had he been this at ease underwater before, and what amazed him is the fact that it all happened not in a kid's pool, but in the middle of nowhere. It seemed crazy to him.

Ferb turned his head as he and Baljeet went toward the floor, but the redhead wasn't in sight. _That's weird_ , _Phineas hasn't shown up around me for a while. It's not his style to not come to me every few minutes._

Upon entering the water, Phineas knew he had made a mistake. It wasn't a dolphin; it was a shark- a good one, hopefully, though it was still unclear yet. The shark was going so fast that Phineas could hardly even hold on to his tail; he shook his tail a lot as he swam, and that made it even more difficult for Phineas.


	22. Chapter 22

As he was dragged through the water, Phineas couldn't think at all, let alone trying to fathom how fast the shark and he were going. It would probably still be hard to do so even if he could, though. _Oh man, I didn't expect this kind of insanity._

After the shark began to slow down, the redhead finally noticed that the guitar was strapped to himself automatically, likely due to the speed they were at, though he didn't know exactly how. In no time did they got to a large cave.

Phineas started to have a feeling in his guts that the shark was much more intelligent than normal. He had only been spending quite a short amount of time with him, all of which on the shark bringing him to the cave they were in now, so he couldn't be sure of that. But there was certainly something different about this shark.

As he approached them, Ferb called his animal friends under the sea, his mouth opened for a brief second and allowing water to get in. It didn't bother him at all, though; he had gotten perfectly used to that years ago. He saw Luke snatching a tuna passing by, champing down on the gills hard to keep it from getting away until the fish was suffocated to death.

"Hey, I thought you just had a meal twenty minutes before," said Ferb.

"I did, but that's far from satisfying. I'm still a bit hungry now," replied the dolphin as he ate the tuna whole. Ferb smiled a little as he watched Luke eating.

Marsh swam off the other way because he saw a porcupinefish under. He swiftly attacked it from the right side, provoking its instinctive defense. The porcupine fish pumped up into a round ball, and its spines pointed outward.

Marsh spat the fish out after sucking on it for two seconds or so and held it with his flippers. He didn't touch right on the spines to avoid getting hurt, yet he applied a bit pressure to keep the porcupinefish inflated. The dolphin threw it at his friends and corkscrewed back to them.

Ferb clapped his hands. "That was pretty sick," he remarked. Just as he finished his sentence, Luke threw the porcupinefish at him. Ferb almost breathed in the water out of surprise, but he managed to catch it. Although it was spiked, it didn't quite hurt when he touched it. It was actually comfortable and stimulating at the same time as the spines poked his palms without penetrating through his skin.

Ferb threw it at Marsh, his hands completely uninjured. Not the tiniest injury was made. Marsh swung his tail and stroke the round fish, propelling it towards another dolphin, who did the same. The porcupinefish never had a chance to deflate as it was tossed among Ferb and the dolphins.

Phineas followed the shark farther into the cave and found a space loaded with various instruments- guitars, basses, cellos, violins, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, drums, and more. Phineas had no idea how in the world didn't the piano float away or drift off with the ocean current.

The shark got to the piano and started to play "Don't Stop Me Now" as he sung into the microphone, while Phineas put the guitar beside the piano. Phineas was surprised to hear the shark singing in human, but he couldn't even comprehend how the piano remained in perfect condition. In fact, it sounded a little more resonant underwater.

Phineas really wanted to enjoy the show, but he was running out of breath. He signaled the shark that he had to surface. The shark stopped playing before getting into the second verse and let him go. Phineas smiled at the shark and swam towards the entrance, tracing their path when they came in.

 _That shark is quite nice, although he could be a bit overexcited sometimes. He acts more like a, I don't really know, dolphin, I guess? And he sounds just like Freddie Mercury, who had passed away years ago. But it can't be; Freddie's a human, that is a shark._

Once Phineas burst out of the surface, he was immediately surrounded by Isabella, Ferb, and Marsh. Ferb looked at him with inquiring eyes, looking terribly worried, _where had you been? Isabella told me you went with an unknown creature._

Holding onto Marsh, Phineas said while breathing heavily, "Yeah. I mistook a shark for one of your dolphin friends." Isabella's eyes grew wide, while Ferb could feel his own heart beating a little faster. _A shark?_ _Did you even realize how much danger you were in, Phin?_

Phineas read his brother's worries and went on to assure him and Isabella, "However, it turned out the shark was just as hostile as a dolphin, although not being one. And he showed me a cave equipped with all kinds of musical instruments, all of which in perfect shape. The most unbelievable part was that the shark could play the piano and sing in human- he sounds exactly like Freddie Mercury."

Ferb looked at him in slight disbelief. "Yeah, you're right, it was probably a translator. Don't know how it works underwater, though. But the other parts are all true; I experienced it on my own! Come on, I'll show you."

The Englishman and the girl followed the redhead down, accompanied by Marsh. On their way, they found Aussie enjoying himself in the vast blueness. Phineas and Isabella waved at him, and Aussie joined them.

"Ah, you're back here... with a couple of guests," the shark tried to act as kind as possible, but it was a little hard to do so with his sharp teeth. He knew it was inevitable that they were alert of and tensed up about him; after all, sharks do have a bad reputation.

Ferb was going to defend himself and his friends against the potential threat, but then he observed that the shark was in fact, pretty hostile to them, with no intention to hurt them. This surprised him a little, as he used to have to fight off sharks with the dolphins during that year-long stay in the open ocean.

He got to the piano and started to sing the song he was singing some time before. Phineas sat on a rock and began to play along on the drums after a few seconds, using the water pressure to help him stay put, while Aussie and Marsh danced the way they like. Ferb was playing the guitar and dancing with the animals.

Ferb was surprised at how much his voice resembles Freddie's. It felt crazy even to the standards of a boy who had built tons of unbelievable inventions with his stepbrother and saved the world with his friends and family from an invasion from another dimension- and discovering his pet's secret status at the same time. _Hold yourself together, Ferb,_ he told himself, _that's something only you could know._

With the visitors playing the instruments, the shark went away from the piano and only sang into the microphone. Ferb noticed that he moved in a flamboyant attitude, which reminded him of Freddie again.

The Brit was lost in thought for a brief while before he realized it was his solo at the last moment; nevertheless, he got into the mood instantaneously and played his part without a single mistake- and expressively.

Isabella got in front of Phineas and shook her body to the music. Phineas smiled at her as he played the drums. The shark started to play the piano again later, though Isabella had to surface as she was running out of breath. Marsh brought her out of the cave, and the girl gasped for a few times before they dove into the water again.

Phineas and Ferb were sitting on the shark, who was shooting through the cave, singing the song. Ferb was playing the guitar, while Phineas clapped his hands together rhythmically, with an obvious smile on his face.

The shark brought them to the surface and the three of them hummed the melody, while Ferb played the guitar, ending the song.

With both of the boys looking at him inquiringly, the animal spoke up, "Yes, I'm Freddie," and thereby confirmed their guess. Ferb was so astonished and exhilarated that he fell off Freddie's back, even though the sense of suspicion had been lingering in his head the whole time.


	23. Chapter 23

"So you are Freddie," remarked Phineas, "that's cool, but how come you became a shark? And I thought you were gone twenty years or so ago. Dad was at your funeral, he even had the videotape."

"You mean Lawrence, don't you? He's quite a nice guy. But anyway, I was dead, actually."

"If you were dead, how come you're alive now?" asked Phineas.

"Well, after I died, they couldn't decide whether they should send me to heaven or hell. Therefore I was stuck in the space in between, wandering the vacancy every second- every moment is the same, and everywhere is the same; as a result, I couldn't tell how long it's been or where I am. At one point, I came across a person whose name I wasn't supposed to reveal."

Listening to the shark talking, Ferb felt something funny in his guts. He could tell it wasn't physical, but emotional instead, with a kind of reminiscing sorrow he'd never known before. He started to think of Perry, whose true identity he knew too well. He's a secret agent, yet that it's going to stay confidential, only he and the platypus himself- and perhaps his colleagues, superiors, and the villains as well-known but no one else. And no one could ever know that Ferb knew that secret- and remembered it along with the whole dimensional adventure despite getting blasted by the Amnesia-inator.

"That person was a wizard. He got there as he had been committing to help people fulfil their dreams in an unconventional way which is forbidden by heaven- wizardry. Though good in nature, those things were considered partly sins for that reason. Therefore, he too was sent to the same place as me.

We chatted for a while, exchanging our life experiences and expressing our compassion toward one another's fate. I told him that he doesn't deserve to be stuck here only for doing good deeds in a way against heaven's will. But he said it's fine for him, and offered to fulfil anything I wished."

Phineas asked, "so you asked to be revived, right?"

"Exactly," said Freddie, "and he warned me of the possible side effects, which may have an enormous impact on me. I accepted that in seconds and became who I am now.

I didn't know I've become a shark at first and tried to surface for air, only to find myself even more terribly out of breath when I do so. It took me some time to finally figure out that I could breathe underwater with my new-found gills. I realized that I'm a shark afterwards through fiddling with my body parts."

A moment later, Freddie started to hear the sound of drums. Someone was jamming out a killer solo. Freddie quickly figured that it had to be coming from nowhere else than the cave, so he and Phineas went back there.

And he was right. They found Ferb playing the drums as soon as they got into the cave. Ferb froze on the spot, a guilty look visible from his eyes. "It's fine, you played brilliantly. Keep going." Freddie said, prompting the Brit to play a 12/8 beat, which Phineas and Freddie jammed over. Phineas was playing the bass, while Freddie was on the guitar.

They went on until Phineas had to surface. They got to the surface, and Phineas caught his own breath in no time. Even he himself was really surprised. "Wow, that's. Pretty. Odd. You know, I'd expect myself to be more badly out of breath after such a long dive like this," said the boy as he clung onto Freddie to avoid getting interrupted by the waves, while Ferb was floating nearby.

Ferb signalled Phineas, and the redhead turned to see the girl riding on a dolphin. It was unmistakably Isabella, and the boys could tell even from well away. As she got closer, Phineas saw there was a platypus in her arms. Ferb noticed that the dolphin carrying her was actually Marsh.

"Whatcha' doing?"

"Oh, Isabella, we were just jamming out with Freddie on the instruments. Where have you been? You were with us earlier."

"Well, I-" said Isabella, but the waves rose above her mouth and muffled her speech. At this, Phineas pulled her out of the water, but just when Isabella was climbing onto the shark, a figure leapt out of the surface at lightning speed. Phineas was so shocked that he toppled backwards into the ocean.

Not having the time to pull away, Isabella got dragged over the shark's back, flew across the air for a brief moment, and then finally fell headfirst into the water. Phineas, who was facing up in the water, made a sassy face while the girl landed on him, her hands on his chest. Isabella was amazed at how he managed to do that underwater, but thanks to the surrounding water, she was able to keep herself from being too enchanted.

A few seconds later, Isabella realized that the redhead was, in fact, playing with her. So she decided to return the favour. She pushed lightly on Phineas first, inviting him to a trip into the deep, to which the latter gladly agreed. After a while, when Isabella thought they had gotten deep enough, she wrapped her arms around Phineas's waist tightly and squeezed hard, causing him to let out a string of air bubbles. The bubbles were tiny at first, but then they got bigger and bigger as they reached the surface.

Phineas's face turned back to normal as Isabella squeezed him a second time with a somewhat self-satisfied smile on her face. They were both upside-down, and Phineas explored their surroundings with his eyes while he carried the girl around.

In the meantime, Baljeet was paddling through the water, and when he felt tired, he would lie on his back and float above the waves that carried him swiftly, perhaps bumpy as well. Yet he didn't mind, even though the salty water sometimes got into his mouth by accident.

A wave hit Baljeet on just the right spot to cause him to turn around. While he was fortunate to have held his breath in time, he also saw a mysterious object underneath the rock. Curious, he decided to check it out.

He breathed in and out slowly for a number of times before attempting the dive. Immediately after that, he took a deep breath and pushed himself underwater, heading straight for the bottom. He got there in a while to find that it was, in fact, a board- it looked like a surfboard, but he couldn't be sure.

 _Why would this thing be here, under the rock?_ Baljeet thought as he tugged on the board to get a better examination of it. _What kind of person would ever think of placing a board here in the first place?_

His intuition turned out to be correct as he pulled the board out. It shot directly upwards, while Baljeet grabbed onto it rapidly out of instinct. He shot through the water and flew another mile above.

Baljeet breathed heavily as he flew through the air, his fingers gripping the surfboard as tightly as he could. However, gravity was stronger, and he fell back into the ocean.

It just so happened that he landed near Phineas, who was surfacing fast. Baljeet followed his friend to the surface, and he couldn't help but notice the twisted look on the redhead's face. _How long had he been under there?_ wondered Baljeet.

Phineas struggled to stay afloat for long enough so he could breathe in more fresh air. The waves weren't to blame; it was only owing to the fact that he was terribly weakened. To assist his friend, Baljeet wrapped his left arm around his waist and held out his right hand for Phineas to grab onto. He paddled hard so Phineas doesn't sink, and he went underwater regularly until Phineas caught his breath.

"Thanks, man." The redhead said between light gasps"No problem, Phineas."

Ferb, Buford, and Isabella got over to the two, with dolphins accompanying them. Phineas and Baljeet sat on Luke's back, who showed no difficulty keeping the boys above water at all.

Marsh showed up a bit later with a fish he'd just caught in his mouth. He swam to Baljeet with the fish, which confused the boy. However, Phineas guessed it instantly, "I think Marsh wants to offer you the fish."

"Why would I want that? There is no way I could make use of that!" said Baljeet.

Phineas, having no idea how to reply, simply tried to take the fish in place of his friend. Marsh narrowed his eyes and gave him a face slap, not letting go. "See? It is specifically meant for you, Baljeet." At this, Baljeet finally took the dolphin's offer, although hesitantly.

"Hey, where's- oh, there you are, Ferb." The Brit appeared with a fish in his grip. With a dolphin assisting him and keeping him afloat, he began to meticulously process the fish with his hands, removing the internal organs and pulling out the bone slowly, pausing every once and a while to exchange glances with Phineas and Baljeet, who was watching his movements.

"I think I got what Ferb is doing," said Phineas as Luke ate the organs and left the bone to sink towards the bottom. Ferb separated a piece of flesh from the fish before putting it into his mouth and consuming it without any hesitation.

Baljeet couldn't believe his eyes. "That's raw," he stated.

"Nah, Ferb is perfectly fine with that," said Phineas, who was offered some flesh. Phineas examined it for a few seconds before deciding to eat the raw fish. "Phineas!"

"Hmm. It tasted pretty nice." Phineas and Ferb began to dig into the food. Isabella said, "well I have to get my raw fish eating patch" and also started eating. However, they couldn't finish it, so they gave the rest to Luke. "Thanks, man," said Phineas.

The gang went for a swim with the dolphins afterwards. As for Baljeet, one of the dolphins were kind enough to keep the fish he just received for him- without eating it, that's for sure. _Hey, where's that platypus?_ Phineas thought.

It didn't take long before Phineas started to feel a sudden pain in his stomach. It rumbled loudly as the boy cramped much more than the boy in the snow globe. He virtually curled himself up into a ball. His face went pale as he sank. _Oh, snap, I think I have to go. My stomach's aching really bad now. Oww..._

Phineas felt something warm and furry grab his hand, pulling him into Ferb's chest, but he was too pained to care whom it was. While Ferb kept both of them above the surface, Phineas struggled to utter, " Ferb, I gotta use the toilet-"

Ferb pulled his stepbrother underwater. They went deeper and deeper until they came before a restroom. It was obvious that it was a restroom, yet Phineas failed to comprehend how there would be a restroom in the depth of the ocean.

After Ferb opened the door, Phineas rushed inside and slammed the door shut. Waste that looks like liquid flowed out of him and immediately got sucked into a tube underneath. But at the same time, Phineas was struggling to hold his breath, as the stomachache was making it rather hard.

Despite his stomach still aching, Phineas swam towards the surface as quickly as he could. He was running out of breath.

Ferb was following Phineas when all of a sudden, Phineas froze underwater, his limbs numb and stiff, his eyes involuntarily unfocused, and he started to sink. The Brit instantly grabbed his stepbrother by the waist and brought him out of the water just before it got too late.

As soon as the two reached the surface, Phineas collapsed weakly onto Ferb, coughing and panting. It took him quite a while to catch his breath- much longer than the previous times, owing to his stomachache. All his friends came to his assistance, and Isabella looked the most concerned. "Thanks, everybody." Marsh nudged his nose against Phineas as he stroke Aussie's wet fur.

"Guys, go on and have fun. I'll join you in a couple of minutes," said the redhead.

"But," Isabella pointed out, "you're too weak to float on your own, Phineas."

"All I need is a little physical support so I could take some rest," said Phineas, having managed to get onto Luke. "Alright, I'll catch up with you later."

Luke swam away from the redhead's friends before Phineas lay down on his back, falling asleep fast. The dolphin didn't have to slow down for the tiniest amount despite carrying Phineas, and he could even surf the ocean waves or do several tricks in a row without waking up Phineas.

Isabella tickled Aussie and made him involuntarily slap his tail, which splashed water towards Buford and Baljeet. In response, Buford lifted Baljeet into the air and threw him into the water to produce huge splashes in the girl's direction.

Baljeet stayed underwater to avoid Isabella's splashes before surfacing to give her a surprise attack. He then went underwater again. After doing this for a few more times, Baljeet swam back to Buford, who tossed him towards Isabella.

Contrary to the boys' expectations, Baljeet landed on Aussie instead. Not only that but when he fell forward into Aussie, his lips came into contact with Aussie's duckbill while his hands instinctively grabbed the platypus by the stomach and the tail.

Had Baljeet been a female platypus, this would have been a strong expressing of his libido towards Aussie, for this was the typical way platypuses start their mating dance. Nevertheless, because of Aussie's secret identity, he was able to sustain the composure even though the experience was novel to the platypus.

"Are you alright?" Isabella asked when Baljeet surfaced.

"Oh, yes, I am fine, it was nothing, thank you," Baljeet answered, a little hesitant because of what he had accidentally done to Aussie. He knew Isabella had been there watching it all, but Isabella acted like it was normal. _It is either she did not know the possible implications of that, or she was acting like that really good,_ Baljeet thought as he swam away with Aussie.

Ferb, who happened to swim past them and witnessed all of these, had to surface immediately so he could have a good laugh- internal laugh. The Brit would never laugh out loud anyways.

In search of some more lonesome beauty, Buford dove for a few feet after the water fight. While he was underwater, Buford had to go; however, he didn't bother to find a toilet but simply took off his swimming trunks. He made sure to conceal his private spot though, as he was well aware of the possibility that Isabella or Ferb might show up somewhere nearby.

Phineas turned onto his side, causing himself to slip into the water in his sleep. His eyes shot open as soon as he felt the surrounding cool water, and he scrambled to the surface, coughing as he flapped his arms and legs to keep himself above the surface.

 _Darn it...anyway, that has been a refreshing nap, but where's everyone now? Oh, there's Luke._

Phineas swam in no particular direction for a minute or two until he saw Baljeet coming his way with Aussie sitting on his head, the tail hanging over his face. Luke and Marsh got underneath Phineas and Baljeet respectively and lifted them up.

"Wow, that feels awesome," said Phineas as he looked down from mid-air. The blue waves are a lot more beautiful in this perspective.

Baljeet said, "I suppose your stomach is feeling better?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm all good now, thanks."

Phineas and Baljeet jumped from the dolphins and landed in the water simultaneously, producing a huge cannonball- enough to catch their friends' and the dolphins' attention. It was also bigger than any cannonball Buford had ever made, even though the two had no intention of competing with Buford on that.

Phineas and Baljeet went as deep as they could using only the momentum they had gained when they hit the surface. The whole gang, including Aussie, as well as all of Ferb's dolphin friends, swam together for a while.

Phineas, Ferb and Baljeet broke the surface. After refilling their lungs, the three went down again. However, Ferb was instantly seized by Marsh, who pushed him towards the floor little by little.

Phineas was going to help him out, but the Brit's eyes told him there was no need to. Therefore, everyone simply stared at the Brit and the dolphin.

Ferb put his hands under the dolphin's head and pushed as hard as possible. Surprisingly, this turned the table, giving Ferb the upper hand. Ferb and Marsh rolled back and forth in the wrestle, but this time, the Brit was pushing Marsh deeper and deeper.

Yet Marsh turned it over in the last second and took Ferb down on the ocean floor. Phineas swam to them after surfacing for the third time during the wrestle, and he saw Ferb's eyes shut. The Brit was biting his lips as he sustained his final minute underwater, pushing the dolphin over and over.

Finally, he succeeded once again. Ferb wasted no time in surfacing, as he was in desperate need for air. The only reason he wasn't drowning is that he was using a self-invented technique to last just a bit longer underwater, although he acted like it was nothing. He came out of the water and took a huge gasp with Phineas and Aussie before they submerged together.

Isabella greeted the redhead with a sweet smile, while Buford stared at the Brit in disbelief just before surfacing.

Phineas and Isabella swam together in the water, changing their position and posture at will. Sometimes Isabella takes the lead; other times, Phineas did.

To the others, it looks like their movements were meticulously designed since the way they were swimming was highly complementary, but it was all improvised without any intention to make it look good. It would have looked odd with a sense of incompleteness if they had been swimming alone, yet together, they form an astonishingly beautiful picture.

Baljeet was swimming with Aussie when they met the dolphin carrying the fish. The boy took it back from the dolphin, showing a grateful smile as they went separate ways. Baljeet was rather comfortable with this since Buford had made the boy carry him while swimming underwater before countless times.

Phineas was standing on a surfboard that he had grabbed from a cave. Buford was reminded of the time when they built a backyard beach, so he told himself he'd get a little payback.

Buford pulled one tip of the surfboard downward, tossing Phineas off it. Nevertheless, Phineas hung onto the other tip and kept surfing, even though the surfboard was in a perfectly vertical position.

"Hey Buford, that was great, let's try some more out!" Phineas said and let go. He climbed onto the surfboard again, but just as he had stood up, Buford leapt at Phineas and landed on his shoulder. The weight compelled Phineas to move to the tip of the board, yet he retains the balance. Buford proceeded to cover the redhead's eyes, but he still didn't fell off.

Phineas was able to respond to different types of waves coming at him accordingly even without his vision. Buford then hopped backwards off, making Phineas slide off. However, Phineas seized the tip of the surfboard with his toes.

Buford lifted the surfboard along with Phineas into the air, which gave Phineas the opportunity to move to the middle. The bully flipped the board over, but Phineas was already hanging upside down with his mouth.

Buford threw the board forward like a dart or a Frisbee, but the redhead did not fell off. Mid-air, he did a front flip and landed on the surfboard as it fell into the water. He then laid down with Buford riding on his back.

After a while, Buford got off. Phineas stood up and glanced down on Aussie, who was swimming along with him with Buford and several dolphins. "Keep yourself alive, keep yourself alive, all you people, keep yourself alive!" Phineas sang with his usual grin.

 _Wait, who's playing Debussy_ _? It sounds really great,_ Phineas thought. He sat down and looked at his friends, "Ferb?"

Ferb, who was sitting on Swampy, stated, "Le Sirenes from Trois Nocturnes by Debussy." Just as he was speaking, they began to hear female vocals. Buford moved his arms in an overly passionate fashion as if he were conducting the music, while Phineas and Ferb closed their eyes, enjoying the music.

"Ah, Debussy." said Phineas, to which Baljeet responded, "yes. Listen to that harmony and that texture. It is unfathomable how the voices are woven together and how each part retains its character while blending perfectly together as a whole."

"Well that, is Debussy," said Phineas. He felt Aussie hopping into his lap, so he petted him without opening his eyes. He didn't have to because having Perry as their pet made him quite used to petting a platypus.

The music acted as a lullaby for the platypus, and he was sound asleep in no time. Meanwhile, Ferb and Buford were swimming to the rhythm and the dynamics of the piece.

As the music gradually got to a climax with a crescendo, Phineas started to hum along. His eyes shot open as the orchestra and the singers blasted a rich forte section, and he sang the orchestral melody by imitating multiple instruments, depending on what was the most prominent at the moment.

"Hey Phineas," said Isabella, sitting on the surfboard that Phineas had been surfing on earlier. "This music is magnificent."

"Yes, yes it is. Hey, did you hear that syncopation? That was so awesome!"

Phineas stroke Aussie's fur several more times and put him on the dolphin before getting onto the surfboard. Isabella stood in the middle, while Phineas stood in the front.

As the music faded out, a huge wall of water stood in front of Phineas and Isabella, who disappeared into the gigantic waves. Their silhouettes got smaller and smaller, fainter and fainter until not a sign of their trace could be seen.

Quite soon Phineas and Isabella found themselves standing on top of the wave, miles off the surface. Phineas jumped from the surfboard, much to Isabella's shock.

After plunging into the water, Phineas descended rather quickly, so much so that he went through a deep trench purely relying on gravity. He was presented with a pleasant surprise when he found a violin and a bow there. After a little tuning, Phineas began to play Paganini's Caprice No. 24 on the violin, although he was only able to play up to the fourth variation before he had to surface.

Isabella was greatly relieved when she dove to see Phineas unscathed. "Phine-" She tried to say but got interrupted, "Hey Isabella, look what I've found!"

"There was a violin under the sea?"

"Well, apparently this area has an abundance of underwater musical instruments," Ferb remarked jokingly as he improvised a three-part fugue on the violin handed to him. The theme was in C minor, although it wasn't really a sad one because of the rhythm; he used nearly all contrapuntal device known to man, including but not limited to inversion, augmentation, and stretto. Moreover, he modulated to various other keys like E flat major and G sharp minor. The Brit played multiple consecutive double stops and chords, which was seemingly impossible, yet he played with perfect intonation and controlled dynamics. All of the voices were independent, clear and fluent while the playing was expressive. Ferb ended the improvisation with a picardy third, that is, it ended on a C major chord instead of a C minor chord.

All of his friends, dolphins included, applauded his magnificent performance. Aussie chattered in appreciation as well. "That was awesome, Ferb! I could hardly believe it was improvised," said Phineas.

"Yeah, you completely lacerated it!" added Buford.

"I love every note in it, from the first note to the last major chord," said Isabella, to which Baljeet replied, "I feel the same as you do."


	24. Chapter 24

"Guys, did you hear that?" said Phineas.

"Yeah, I think it's them again. They're singing a different song now, but the tone and timbre are identical," said Buford.

"The tune sounds familiar, but I couldn't recognise it," said Phineas, "Ferb, do you know?"

Initially, Ferb shrugged, but after a few seconds, he began to play on his violin a melody that goes with the voices.

"Oh, it's that song," Phineas and Isabella said simultaneously upon realisation.

When the voices finally showed their faces, Phineas decided to swim over for a closer look. I might get to interact with those amazing singers as well, he thought. Ferb looked at him worried, but he said, "don't stop me, Ferb."

The gang followed Phineas towards the However, halfway there, a young orca tucked his tail between Phineas's legs and laid down on the redhead. Not having enough strength to resist, Phineas submissively let the orca take him deeper and deeper while trying to figure out a way to outsmart the gigantic mammal and escape.

Phineas tried to break away several times when the orca was doing somersaults underwater, but he failed over and over. It was just like the orca could read his mind. Phineas thought, wow, kidnapped by a killer whale- who likely doesn't want to rip me apart or devour me.

Ferb, Buford, Baljeet, and Isabella followed Phineas and the orca from the surface, always keeping an eye on the animal. However, the orca seemed to be ignoring them, so Buford decided to go straight up to the animal.

It was easy for Buford to catch up with the orca since it slowed down a lot on purpose. However, when Buford approached the animal, it bit Phineas on the left shoulder. Buford couldn't help but grimace as the orca sank its teeth into Phineas' skin.

Phineas's eyes grew wide as he waited for the most painful, the bloodiest, and the most horrible part to come- the realease. but it never came. The orca didn't let go of his shoulder as expected.

Buford was about to punch the orca when Ferb appeared by his side and stopped him. Knowing that it wouldn't be a good idea to force the orca to pull away from the bite, Ferb silently stared at the orca to ask it to release Phineas.

Yet the animal turned the other way, attempting to slap Ferb with its tail. Ferb snatched the tail just in time and swam even deeper with the young orca.

Meanwhile, Buford went to the surface for air and found Aussie beside Isabella. Aussie saw his face and realized there must be something serious going on. He and Isabella followed Buford underwater, descending at full speed, to see Phineas getting drowned by an orca.

 _Why is he keeping me down for so long? What do he want from me? It's like I haven't been breathing for ages now, I need air, I need oxygen..._ thought Phineas as he was dragged around like an inanimate toy.

The animal finally decided to stop the behavior when Phineas literally went completely out of breath- if it hadn't been for Ferb covering up his mouth and pinching his nose tight, he would have inhaled the ocean. Still, he was suffocated and fell unconscious. The redhead was brought to the surface by Ferb, Aussie, and Luke.

As Ferb placed Phineas upon Luke's back, concerned eyes of all the human beings and dolphins were fixed upon the redhead. Isabella put her palms on his chest. Not a single movement. Baljeet held his right wrist and closed his eyes. He didn't sense anything. Aussie and Dan rubbed against the redhead's face time afer time but got no response.

"Phineas," Ferb whispered, while Aussie chattered mournfully.

"Phineas, I'm sorry I didn't confess it to you earlier, but I'm madly in love with you. Ever since we first met, I knew you're the one I love for all eternity. Phineas, please wake up, Phineas, Phineas, Phi-" her words eventually turned into sobs, helpless sobs.

Baljeet said, "You were a great friend, Phineas, we have had so much fun. You always brought us laughs and smiles even in the worst of times, and I really appreciate you, and..." He was too lost in the sentiments to think, so he ended with a sorrowful sigh.


	25. Chapter 25

Aussie didn't know what to feel at this point. He knew for a fact that Phineas' death is going to make Perry as devastated as he is, and it will haunt both agents for the rest of their lives. There was nothing to say- it was too late.

He looked at Ferb, who was double-checking the pulse while perfroming CPR on the boy. All of them knew this probably wasn't going to help, but they still had hope in their hearts.

Ferb shook his head disappointedly, making Aussie as well as everyone's heart sank as if they had never been dragged down ever. Aussie allowed gravity to take control and submerged, purely relying on his animal instinct to hold his breath and gently swim back up.

To Aussie, it felt weird, almost like a dream. He just repeated doing that over and over, his body completely relaxed in the water, yet his soul completely ripped into pieces. As the water brushed against his fur, Aussie's mind was wandering. He forgot when he had started to let his thoughts fly, and he didn't know when will these thoughts settle.

Baljeet and Ferb stared at the redhead's pallid face, sorrow written all over their faces. Phineas didn't response, his eyes was closed. Ferb's dolphin friends swam over to express their condolences. They touched Phineas' cheek and let out mournful cries.

The dolphins offered to lead them back to Danville, to which they agreed. All of them, be it animal or human, everyone had a solemn face. The atmosphere was heavy. The pain in the chest threatened to suffocate Ferb Fletcher.

 _I should have told him the truth... I shouldn't have kept it all to myself... I know, I know, I know, ..._

"Carpe diem. That's what you have been doing for your entire life, Phineas." Ferb spoke while swimming. While normal people might choke or mess up their breathing trying to do that, it was rather natural for the Brit.

Just as he finished the sentence, Ferb heard a faint voice, as if his own echo, saying, "Carpe diem." It was so soft and weak that it could barely be heard over the sound of the sea waves, but Ferb, with his sharp ears, recognized the tone.

The voice belonged to no other than Phineas Flynn.

Ferb got over to Luke and checked his stepbrother. He pumped his chest vigorously a few times, and Phineas' eyes began to show its blue hue.

Everyone stopped swimming and gathered around Luke, who was still carrying Phineas on his back. Buford and Isabella spoke simultaneously, "Phineas."

This was the first time Buford had ever spoken so softly. The absolute first time in his life up to this point.

As Phineas pulled himself up, he heard his friends shouting his name in ecstasy. He felt Ferb, Isabella, and Baljeet grabbing his right hand. He opened his eyes fully to their incredibly blissful faces.

"What happened?" said Phineas, confused but not too much so. You'd expect him to have been completely befuddled, but he wasn't.

Baljeet was the first to gain enough composure to speak, so he told him everything that happened after he blacked out. "So I was out for, like, 25 minutes?"

"Yes," said Buford, "do you recall anything?"

Phineas paused a little before answering, "well, I remember Ferb covering my mouth underwater and bringing me to the surface, and honestly, that was anything but pleasant, I can sense myself from begging for oxygen to losing consciousness altogether. Although because Ferb was blocking my nose and mouth, not one drop of water got into my respiratory system. That's all I remember."

Baljeet remarked, "that's basically everything before the very instant he blacked out, isn't that?"

Ferb blinked his eyes, which meant "positive".

Phineas was now sitting straight, his eyes glowing with optimism and happiness as usual. Ferb put an arm over his shoulder and looked at him lovingly.

"Thank you Ferb, you're the best brother I could ever have, and I definitely couldn't have asked for more."

 _You're welcome Phineas, I feel the same about you._ Ferb didn't say those words out loud, but Phineas knew what he was thinking. For Phineas, Ferb has always been the type of person to be thinking out loud.

Phineas looked down at Buford, who was holding Aussie to his bare chest, just keeping the platypus' bill above water. "So Ferb, what are we going to do next?"

Ferb gave a questioning look, _do you feel well enough to resume?_

"Yes, yes I am." Before Ferb could say anything, Phineas promptly dove into the waves, leaving Ferb no choice but to follow him.

 _He seems to have recovered quite good in such a short amount of time, and that's surprisingly nice._

Aussie went toward the boys and managed a smile at them. Phineas stroke the platypus' fur as he imitated his movements, while Ferb tried to teach Baljeet how to leap.

Ferb gripped Baljeet's hand and made the dive. For Baljeet he was swimming so fast that he had to swim with all his strength or his arm might get dislocated, and that exhausted almost all the oxygen he had in his lungs when Ferb finally decided they had gotten deep enough.

In an urgent need for air, Baljeet kicked his legs faster than he ever could have imagined, propelling his body up. Meanwhile, Ferb decided to keep going deeper into this seemingly bottomless trench. He started diving a little faster than earlier, but not too much so.

Baljeet was about to leap out of the water when Luke and Buford suddenly blocked his path. Not given enough time to react, Baljeet bumped right into the dolphin, the impact causing him to lose control underwater and thus breathing in great amount of salty water.

As he coughed, he tried in vain to get to the surface again, but his body was too weak to, and he sank as he painfully tried to keep more water from getting into his body, knowing exactly how many seconds it would take for him to start drowning.

At the same time, Ferb found the trench getting just as narrow as his body. Nevertheless, he decided to take an chance and see if he could just squeeze in.

Phineas saw Baljeet's life hanging, so he quickly got up to him. Baljeet grabbed his waist right away, almost turning them upside down at first. However, Phineas managed to keep things under control and swam toward the surface.

Knowing that Baljeet wouldn't be able to hold his breath for more than a few seconds at most, Phineas devoted all his strength into taking him to the surface as fast as possible.

Phineas brought Baljeet out of the surface and pushed him onto Dan the dolphin, before breaking the surface himself and gasping over and over, using his arms and legs to keep himself above surface. He didn't even notice when Luke lent a helping hand- technically fin- and laid down on the surface instead.

* * *

It took him a bit of work, but he did it. Ferb got through the narrow entrance, and his body told him there's 4 minutes left before he needs to surface. _I could only dive for 8 minutes last time at the pool, and it's been 6 minutes since I took my last breath. Either I'm unknowingly getting better again, or my body is lying to me. Hopefully it's the former._

The trench became so narrow that he had to fold his arms behind his back and propel himself with some kind of wave-like movement from his waist only, which somehow slightly resembles Perry's preferred swimming style when they're playing underwater tag.

Nevertheless, once he'd gotten far enough, the room widened once more, creating a whole new world there, as though it's a secret hideout just for the ones who are courageous and strong enough to get there. Ferb couldn't help but think of Perry's secret lair and the fact he secretly knows of his secret as he swam around the place.

Phineas regulated his own breath in less than a minute and was enjoying the view from the ocean surface. But all of a sudden, his leg cramped. Both legs at the same time. Phineas gasped in uncomfortableness, but before he could make a sound, he began to sank like a stone.

In an attempt to ease his leg muscles, Phineas wrapped his arms around his legs instinctively. Intellectually he knew of other better methods for treating this kind of occurrences, but he had never practiced it, as he thought he wouldn't need it.

Phineas had never cramped, even though he was a frequent swimmer and that almost every time he swims, it's as described in the following:

He would jump straight into the pool with absolutely no warm up and swim near the bottom of the pool with a depth at least three times his height until his body's screaming for oxygen.

Then he would take a quick deep breath at the surface before engaging in the most physically demanding style of swimming at full speed. After exhausting almost all his strength in that way, Phineas would make another dive toward the bottom and swim at the bottom in the same swimming style as earlier. And Phineas would not surface until he has been underwater for at least as long as his first dive- he would stay longer if possible.

That sounded like a recipe for cramps, but surprisingly, never had he gotten any doing that. Not even once, not even the slightest cramp.

 _It'll get better soon,_ Phineas assured himself, _and then I can swim to the surface. The time would be sufficient. It's weird I cramped though, I didn't feel like it was too demanding on my body carrying Baljeet._

Indeed, his legs recovered when he reached the sea floor, not really the bottom but there's a nice flat surface for him to lie on. So Phineas laid on his belly there, staring up into the ocean.

He could see vaguely the sunlight reflecting off the ocean waves, just like an impressionistic painting. He saw the animals coming and passing above him and around him as he felt the heartbeat of the ocean.

Phineas smiled at Isabella when she saw him there. That moment their eyes meet, she got reminded of the first time they met, when she found herself falling into his ocean eyes within seconds. And now she's looking into those ocean eyes literally in the ocean, it's like she's losing her own mind.

 _He looks like a prince that way- a prince from a fairy tale. I love those blue eyes melting into the ocean around us- wait, no. He is a prince. He is my prince, my Prince Charming, the love of my life. Yes, Phineas, you're the love of my life, and if it's possible to still love you in our afterlife, I will love you for all eternity. Because you are my dreams and much more, you're all I could have asked for._

The redhead stroke an octopus gently on the head as she wrapped herself around his chest. The octopus then slid a tentacle underneath his armpit, causing him to giggle and gasp underwater. He was laughing uncontrollably with his mouth wide open, letting all the water in. Phineas swallowed quite some water because of that, but he paid no heed to what just happened and closed his eyes in relaxation after gulping down the water.

Yet all too suddenly, Phineas felt the ground shaking violently. He rushed for the surface immediately, while Isabella followed the boy, who had an octopus clinging onto his body.

"We gotta find our friends," said Phineas while still being underwater, focusing more on enunciating the words clearly than on keeping water from getting into his mouth, "there's an earthquake right underneath us."

Isabella nodded, and they reached the surface in no time, where they found Buford and Aussie playing with each other.

"Hey Buford," said Phineas after taking one massive breath, "have you seen Baljeet and Ferb? There's an earthquake underneath us right now."

"No, dinner-bell, Buford ain't seen Bal-"

"Hi, Phineas, Buford, and Isabella," came the voice of said boy from Isabella's side.

"How dare you cut me off, you darn nerd! Buford's gonna give you a piece of his mind!"

"Buford, I think he didn't mean to, he probably just didn't hear you," said Isabella, "and Baljeet, there's an earthquake right underneath us."

"In that case, it's nice we're all here together- hey, where's Ferb?"

* * *

Unknown to any of his friends, Ferb was trapped in the depth of the ocean, for his way to the surface was blocked by the upper part of the plate merging together. The Brit desperately knocked on the rock above his head, hoping that someone- likely a whale or a dolphin- would hear him. His heart sank when he got no response after eleven attempts.

Ferb knew by then he would probably drown there regardless of whether he's been found, so he decided to swim even deeper instead in his last minute. _At least I bury the secret, Perry's secret, with myself in this place. Goodbye, friends and family, goodbye, the world, goodbye, Phineas, I'm sorry for breaking your heart._

In the meantime, Phineas and his friends were swimming all around the place, searching for the Brit. They had even gotten a full school of dolphins and a couple whales and orcas to help them out. But they can't find a trace of him, as though he had vanished from this planet, this universe.

"There's no use in searching, the best we could achieve by now is finding his body," said Baljeet as he, Buford, and Phineas emerged from the waves, "we've been looking for him for too long already, and yet no one has seen him. You know what means, it's too unlikely that he had surfaced but no one saw him."

Buford was angered by the boy's remark and retorted, "what are you saying? How could we just stop our endeavor? How could you even think of quitting, not to mention suggesting we stop searching for Ferb? To quote Ferb Fletcher himself, 'we shall not cease 'til he is found.' We're gonna keep trying!"

"Let's just stop and go home," Phineas sounded terribly heartbroken and defeated, "I'd rather not to find him - so that I can lie to myself, I can pretend he's still out there swimming happily somewhere in the ocean. I- I don't wanna deal with this anymore." And anyone who was there could hear the immense pain in his voice, which was deeper than the ocean itself. And it sent shiver down their spines.

* * *

At the bottom of the trench, the Brit had found a perfect spot that he would die in, a permanent slumber nature made just for him. He picked up a violin he spotted and swiftly tuned its strings to Baroque tuning.

He began playing the famous chaconne in D minor by J. S. Bach, pouring all his strength and passion into each and every note of the swan song, and perhaps because of that, the emotional power of the performance was unheard of and likely out of reach for anyone. Ferb wondered if it was a pity that no one else was able to hear him play this piece.

With all pain and sorrow he ever felt projected into the music, he somehow managed to hold his breath while playing through the entire chaconne, even though the piece actually lasted way longer than he could have.

As the final note faded out in the depth of the ocean, the Brit knew his end was coming near. _I guess this is it. Farewell._ He dropped the violin, already too weak to move a muscle by now, but his body just kept refusing to breathe underwater, even if he had been down there for a solid 16 minutes already. _It's like my body loves the suffocation,_ thought the Brit.

He closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable, his only friend for the moment being. Yet his mind went completely blank as he heard, clearly, the opening of Grande Sonate Pathétique composed by none other than Ludwig van Beethoven in 1798. The grave was played painfully slowly, at 80 thirty-second notes per minute.

Baljeet reluctantly went on another search with Buford, only to prove himself right. After scavenging the rocky ocean floor for as long as they could manage, none of the two was able to spot a trace of their green-haired friend.

They were both panting heavily as they surfaced. Baljeet almost drowned because Buford wouldn't allow him to surface before he did, so he had to stay underwater for an extra minute. Isabella pulled them onto Marsh for a bit of rest before diving in herself.

Aussie was pretty sure that Ferb was trapped underneath the rocks at the bottom of the trench, so he silently disappeared into the blue that matches his fur and his emotions right this moment, hoping to find a way to the other end.

"I'm gonna go look him for one last time," declared the redhead after some thought, "and this time, I will not surface without him, I will not see the light again if he couldn't." His tone was so unbelievably solemn that everyone was convinced that he would stick to his own words.

Ferb paid absolutely no attention to anything other than the music now, essentially setting himself on autopilot, and thus failed to notice pure magic unravel on himself. He was, albeit extremely slowly, ascending, swimming towards the top, his arms were moving, his legs were kicking, so slowly yet so powerfully, to the pulse of the sonata.

As the high C faded into utter silence, Ferb felt something growing inside of him, expanding, rising, beyond his perception and imagination; then another C emerged, and once again, he threw all thoughts away until an E flat above high C struck his soul with sadness, just before rolling down a rapid chromatic scale, grasping his heart at the final jump to an long A flat.

Word cannot describe how serendipitous it is for Phineas and Aussie to meet each other at the opening of a narrow tunnel that leads to the bottom. Having swum quite some distance from where they started, both were breathless, but only the platypus surfaced; Phineas completely neglected his body's scream for air and proceeded to dive even deeper into the tunnel.

The Allegro part started, and Ferb began to swim over twice as fast as he normally does. There was some sort of vigor in his body that resonates perfectly with the rumbling tremolo, and it grew stronger and stronger as the music proceeded to get more more and more intense, although a little later it softened again and became a bit more delicate, causing Ferb to slow down significantly.

Every sforzando note and every mordent was pushing the Brit into motion, and as the music modulated to E flat major, he swam faster and faster, ascending with the music. Then the quiet but fast descending run from an E flat above high C came, which made Ferb kick his legs a lot lighter.

As the music got stronger and stronger again, Ferb felt a force in him that was asking to be released; six chords pounded above the roaring tremolo in the bass, seemingly releasing everything for the Brit. He didn't even realize that he had frozen and was actually sinking.

Of course, Phineas heard the sonata as well. He found the piece really reflective of his current mood, deeming it normal to hear Beethoven at the depth of the ocean.

It didn't take long for Phineas to spot a specific figure from a distance. Using his last breath, he swam over to find none other than his beloved stepbrother, who seemed to be drowning. The Brit's body was immobile in the water, and his eyes were shut.

Phineas grabbed his wrist gently. _Thank goodness, his heart's still beating._ He tightened the grip a little and tried to bring Ferb to the surface, but he was too weak. Vowing to either survive or drown together with his own stepbrother, he tied the Brit onto his own back with a rope he found hanging from the rock above them, before attempting to swim to the surface.

Phineas kicked his legs to the rhythm of the still playing Grande Sonate Pathétique and gradually went towards the surface. But then Ferb began to move his limbs as well, which enabled them to get to the surface faster. To Phineas, it looked as though the Brit was subconsciously swimming.

They met Aussie halfway- literally, who helped them get to the surface. As a secret agent, Aussie was not only incredibly good at swimming but also strong enough to pull both Phineas and Ferb all the way to the surface in just a matter of seconds, which impressed Phineas a lot, even though the redhead was too exhausted and breathless to think about it.

Phineas laid his head on Dan and gasped again and again, his waist supported by Buford and Isabella; on the other hand, Ferb was sitting on Marsh with Baljeet beside him in the water and Aussie in his lap. He was seemingly in a deeply meditative state, his eyes only opening after quite some time.

However, he didn't seem to be breathing at first. Instead, he only gradually start to breath in oxygen after Phineas had already regulated his breath and was able to sit on Dan by himself without any assistance. He blinked as he petted Aussie, much to Baljeet and Phineas' surprise.

"Ferb?" said Phineas, feeling just as dumbfounded as everybody else.

The Brit held his thumb up, feeling something in his body coming out. Merely seconds later, he finally took a massive gasp, his eyes open wide like they've been shut for all of his life before. Then he began conducting in Allegro 2/2 as he continued to gasp even more, which reminded Phineas of the piece they heard earlier underwater.

Phineas' guess was verified when Ferb hummed a couple notes quickly alternating between A and B flat which landed on a long B flat. Phineas immediately joined in and sang the following E flat minor motif in the bass, to which Ferb responded with humming the subsequent melodic figure gently.

Phineas and Ferb smiled at each other, the latter acting more subtly, leaving Buford in a state of confusion. "Grande Sonate Pathétique, Op. 13, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1798. It was his eighth piano sonata, and its center key is C minor, also one of the few works that was named by the composer himself. They were humming the opening of the second theme group in the Allegro di molto e con brio movement, or the first movement, which is in E flat minor," remarked Baljeet.

"Here comes my favorite part of the movement,"said Baljeet right before starting to hum the treble part, gradually getting louder as his vocals rose in pitch. Phineas and Ferb sang the bass countermelody and the lower harmonies respectively.

The three's voice suddenly softened as Ferb sang an E flat above high C that immediately rolled down to a middle G. Baljeet joined the Brit on the repeat, where they did a crescendo, leading to the resolute concluding part, which is an obvious variant of the first theme presented at the beginning of the Allegro di molto e con brio movement. Eventually, while Phineas was powerfully singing a descending bass line, Ferb and Baljeet sang the upper whole notes with Ferb singing the E flats.

When Baljeet had just taken a quick, deep breath for the next note, Phineas unexpected tackled him into the water. At exactly the same time, coincidentally, Ferb jumped into the waves with the platypus as well.

Baljeet's eyes grew wide as he looked into the triangle head's ocean eyes. For one moment there, he almost couldn't tell if he was swimming in the ocean or the eyes of the boy right before him. Because of that, he forgot to resist when Phineas pushed him deeper and deeper. As a matter of fact, he would have forgotten to breathe too if he could breathe underwater. Ferb smirked at Aussie as they swam past the two.

The Indian boy felt his skin on some kind of rough surface and realized that he was sitting on the ocean floor. It was beyond his knowledge and comprehension how Phineas took him that far without him knowing. He definitely couldn't have gone that deep on his own, even without taking into account the time required for him to surface.

Meanwhile, Ferb closed his eyes and spread his limbs out, completely relaxing all his muscles underwater, every inch of his body at rest, and only the most necessary parts for holding his breath were moving.


End file.
